Dark Imperium Episode 9:The Buried Past
by menofwarhide
Summary: Rogal is forced to leave Terra after an archavist discovers a secret object buried since long before the heresy but it is not only the imperium who seeks to recover this item.


Cyntax from the outside looked like nothing more than a standard imperial world with vast hive city's covering most of the northern continent and the south with smaller towns close to the vast ocean that covered most of the planet apart from a few islands that had become small hive city's in their own right.

The capitol hive city was known as Symec and was the seat of power for the planet, it had come to compliance early on in the crusades when an imperial fleet had stumbled upon it and to their delight found a world that had been waiting for contact from another human species so no legions were dispatched or armies deployed, the then president of the planet had signed the compliance pact without hesitation and after that it had fast become a stopping point for trade and military fleets on their way to the northern sectors.

For many the planet was considered an archive of history, during the heresy it had been ignored by the arch-traitor and his forces as it had no real strategic value on the approach to Terra and most notably the Raven Guard had staged their hit and run assault tactics on the traitors supply lines from within the system, there was even a room that was sealed in the high tower of the governors palace that had been used by Corvus Corax himself and beneath that palace lay a vast wealth of information in the form of old cogitators with memory cores still intact.

There was also stacks upon stacks of data slates the oldest of which came from just before compliance and this was why Derring Algor was here.

He had been an archivist since he was a child and along with his brother and sister they had joined their parents in excavating old ruins under the ever watchful gaze of skitarii, Arbites and on one occasion while excavating ruins on one world they were watched over by a group of marines from the blood ravens chapter.

They had been teenagers then but it was fascinating for them to to see space marines in the flesh and their captain had been most polite and imposed little restrictions on their activities, this time however he was alone apart from the other archivists and watched by a rather zealous group of Skitarii who scanned everyone as they left.

The reason was, as dictated to them by Celia Calla, the head archivist who hailed from the Aurelia sector, the empress had sent out a decree looking for dedicated archivists to search for historical records to help rebuild the imperium's lost knowledge that had left massive gaps in their history and details including information about who the second legion and their primarch were had been lost or the information had become so degraded it could not be restored.

Already much had been found, accounts of forgotten battles, legendary warriors and lost STC machines which initially is why he thought the Skitarii were here but Derring had been wrong about that, they were confiscating certain pieces of information, one other archivist had told him he had found a gene-locked data slate he believed contained information on one of the traitor legions but the Skitarii were led by a rather obstinate tech-priest who had been able to by pass the lock and upon analysing the information it deemed it a security risk and took it from him before reminding him the contract he signed warned him not speak about any restricted knowledge he may of seen on the slate.

Derring had decided he wouldn't allow that to happen to him, if he found anything restricted he would hide it so he cut a hole in the under-section of his scanner just big enough to fit a data slate, he would then take it out read the information and then the next day he would bring it back in and claim he had only just found it but he had to be careful, the palatine enforcers had been brought in to be an extra security layer in case someone tried to do what he was going to attempt.

Unfortunately so far Derring had not found anything that was deemed a risk by the tech-priest because most of it was minor details that filled in smaller gaps for information already retrieved so this time he had his eye on one of the secondary rooms that led off the main concourse where most of the archivists were working, there was no restriction on where they could and could not go so he planned to secure himself one of those rooms and spend the day hunting through the data sales and records that lay in there.

As he entered the concourse he received nods from fellow archivists and glares from the Skitarii but he was able to make his way past the main concourse to a door that initially would not open, he pushed his body wight against it but it would not give way but just when he was about to give up one of the Skitarii approached him.

"_do you require assistance Archivist Algor"_

Derring had always been good at talking his way out of situations and he knew what to say here immediately.

"I found a data slate yesterday that leads me to believe there could be valuable information in that room but it appears to be sealed tight!"

This was a lie of course and he had to hope this Skitarii did not look for signs of deception in his words.

It turned to the door and pushed on it with it's augmented limbs, it was clearly sealed tight because even the Skitarii struggled but eventually it came open and it stepped away from the door.

"thank you" Derring said bowing to the Martian which just nodded in response

Upon on entering dusty stale air filled his nostrils and he coughed as it tickled the back of his nose but he was in, the room was actually quite empty and he felt his heart sink as he looked around and saw nothing but broken data slates that looked like they had been burned in a fire, perhaps that's why the room had been sealed because a fire had started so to stop it spreading throughout the rest of the archives or... maybe the fire had been deliberate he thought as he noticed the remains of some kind of device.

He knelt down and cleaned away what burnt metal he noticed a Id rune baring the mark of the local adeptus arbites but this device was old and it must have been used many a millennia ago but who ever had sealed the room had made a mistake in not coming back to check the work was complete as whilst kneeling down he spotted a data slate trapped under a fallen piece of debris and it was mostly intact.

He tried to lift up the debris but it was a heavy piece of an old cogitator, he briefly considered asking the Skitarii for help again but if it realised what he was doing or got curious about what the slate contained it might ask questions, of course the slate could contain nothing of interest but the room had been deliberately burnt for some reason so it had to be important.

He looked around and saw a long metal beam just the right size, he grabbed it and slid it under the broke cogitator piece and used the beam as a leaver to lift the heavy piece off.

As he picked it up he noticed three things, firstly the dead power pack, this wasn't anything to worry about as most data slates down here were drained of power and archivists had brought mobile chargers so they could see what data they contained, the second thing he noticed was that the piece of cogitator had crushed the back and had probably damaged some internal components but his father, emperor rest his soul, had taught him how to do basic repairs and he was confident he could fix this but the third and most exciting thing was the symbol on the back, a tree with single bolt of lightning to represent the trunk and underneath were the number XI...

**The Buried Past**

Kendra positioned her self on a ridge over looking the small town, she lay underneath the heavy cover of short tropical plants that swayed slightly in the breeze.

Insects buzzed and clicked as the she lay there covered by the dark of night and the shadow of the plants, she tried to block the noises out as she starred down the sight of her new rifle with it's Estrellan design and and barrel configuration that was not as different to imperial design as she originally thought it would be, the sight had multiple modes of vision including some some she didn't know existed, it also had a strange trigger that was coded to her genetic signature so no one else could use it and that had been the same for the side arms she had been given.

Her new stealth suit was also a marvel of technology, it was still a deep black but could adjust it's self to match her surroundings so she could blend in to any environment, there was even a limited capability for it to bend light and make her almost invisible but of course it could not block out her heat signature and much of the technology required her to stay perfectly still to make full use of it's effects.

The others had all been given new armour and weapons as well and she spied Koman and Marklar approaching from the western side of the town whilst the others approached from the east, their armour had similar properties but being space marines their size lost them some element of stealth so the armour had been designed more with protection in mind and concealing the sound of their movement but still they moved slowly and with stealth as they approached the town held by cultists and a few Night Lords who were guarding a central building.

So far she had counted six but given how the Night Lords operated she had to assume there was more potentially hidden within the buildings, some of the cultists were torturing a captured guards man whose flesh had been slowly stripped off whilst the rest were either in prayer to the dark gods, cutting runes into their flesh or simply patrolling the town.

"_Kendra what are we looking at" _Koman voxed

She switched her scopes vision mode to search for hidden Night Lords but none shone up and she checked the positioning of cultists before voxing back

"Six marines and about twenty cultists, a few heavy weapons but no sign of any missile launchers or auto cannons"

"_Good, Kinkade status?"_

"_On the edge of the town, a few cultists walking about but we are ready to go on your command"_

Kendra sighted her self on Kinkade, Faraq and Maxis's position where two cultists were stood near by with basic las rifles

"_Alright let's keep quiet as long as we can, Kendra if those marines start moving let us know but don't shoot until we do... remember the objective is to gain access to the cogitator inside the central building so lets get it done"_

Kendra watched as Kinkade and Maxis pulled two patrolling cultists into the undergrowth quietly as Koman and Marklar did the same to a lone cultists who was too busy praising the dark gods to notice two marines.

Both teams moved up slowly and all was going well until one of the cultists, who had gone to relive herself in a bush noticed disturbed shrubbery but it was the sound of someone moving to break her neck that made her yelp and that was enough for one of the Night lords to abandon his position and investigate.

Kinkade and Maxis took cover in a door way whilst Faraq laid flat behind a parked rhino.

"One of the marines is approaching you Kinkade!" she voxed "even if you move he's gonna see you"

"_Koman?"_

"_we have sight on the main building and can down two of the Night Lords quickly... Kendra take the straggler out and then cover us from the cultists as we take care of the traitors"_

"understood" she Voxed back

She took aim on the traitor marine as he approached and switched the vision mode on her sight until it allowed her to see the armour values of her target, red was impenetrable, yellow was possible at the right angle and green was a definite penetration, the mode was pointless against the cultists but against the heavily armoured marines it was a great function.

The top part of the helm of a marine was solid and hard to penetrate with the warrior in movement but there was a small gap just where the face plate connected and that's where she sighted, had he of been coming towards her she could of used the eye slit but he was at an odd angle right now.

She waited until he was out of sight of his comrades before shooting, the shot flew into the gap between his armour and once inside with no delay like a mass reactive round it shattered into a million shards fragmenting and flying throughout his system cutting through major arteries and organs giving his advanced physiology no time to react and with most of his systems compromised he dropped like rock to the ground.

As he did Koman and Marklar opened up and killed two of the Night Lords before they could react to the signal in their helm a battle brother had fallen but the others did react and brought their guns to bear.

Maxis, Kinkade and Faraq came round and caught them in a cross fire as Kendra swung her rifle around and began eliminating cultists who were running for their weapons or attempting to assist their masters in the fight.

One of the Night Lords attempted to flank around and catch Koman by surprise but Kendra warned him and Koman was waiting and gutted the traitor marine before he could get any position, bolter fire echoed as the last Night Lord held out for a bit before being out flanked by Maxis who put a bolter round straight through the side of his neck.

"_Good Work" _Koman said _"lets clear the building"_

"wait!" Kendra said "Can anyone else hear that?"

They all stopped and listened, the insects had stopped but replacing them was the sound of a jet coming closer then with a fury a figure dropped from the sky twice the size of the marines with metal claws that shone in the moon light, the scarred face of a long black haired man starred down at them.

"Consider this justice for the death of my sons!" Konrad Curze said

In a flash he swiped his lighting claws forward cutting Kinkade and Marklar open before they could react, Maxis attempted to tackle the primarch but he swatted the apothecary away like he was fly.

Kendra took a shot but the primarch seamed to not even know it had hit him but still he picked up Marklar's portable launcher and shot a shell at Kendra, it blew apart the ledge she was on and she was propelled backwards into the undergrowth, finally Koman charged the primarch and stabbed his sword though his armour and the primarch just laughed before picking him up to crush him.

"Freeze simulation!" a voice shot out and everything froze

Gigas stepped in and examined the scene.

"Congratulations your all dead" he said as they all stood up from their positions apart from Koman who was still in the grip of the Night Haunter

Gigas nodded to the simulated primarch and it lowered Koman to the ground and let him go.

"How do you expect us to fight a primarch!" Kinkade exclaimed

"Also Curze didn't kill me" Faraq said

"but he would of done after he was done with Koman!" Gigas said in response as Kendra walked over from where she had landed "and I expect you to be able to think on your feet but all you did here was panic!"

"Forgive me Gigas" Koman started "but some of these simulations have been unfair and to be honest..." he said looking at everyone else "we are sick of being stuck here on Terra... we need a real mission not to mention we still need a psyker"

Gigas nodded in understanding, it had been months since they started training but they had had no real missions and it was beginning to grind on the group that they had been formed as a specialized kill team and yet had nothing to kill that wasn't a simulation.

"A chosen psyker in on his way and will arrive shortly and I am aware it has made you restless sat here doing nothing but running simulation after simulation... I will speak with mother and see if I can find something for you"

"thank you... at this point a simple escort mission would suffice" Koman responded before looking back up at the face of the Night Haunter "My compliments on the simulation though... it really is very life like"

**Cyntax**

Derring had been careful to make sure he spent the whole of his shift inside the room before venturing out to leave knowing had he of tried to leave early it would have been met with suspicion, plus he had signed a contract to say he would follow a certain pattern in regards to shifts and any breech of that contract would mean his archivist licence being suspended or removed making it much harder to get work and the empress had guaranteed a large salary and living expenses for all those who took part in the search, this had meant many people who had never done any archivist work at all applying for licences but most of them had been rejected as this search required genuine skilled and experienced people not just random men and women who wanted to a make a quick buck.

As he approached the exit the tech-priest was stood examining everything found by all those whose shift had finished, Derring could see some data slates had already been taken from people and in order not to appear empty handed upon leaving he had found two slates that contained medical diagrams that had been lost since the heresy knowing these would be valuable.

As he approached the tech-priest he bowed.

"_Archivist Derring Algor your data slates please" _he said through a poor quality synthesizer whilst holding out a metal claw

Derring handed them over and the Martian began to look through them.

"_Were these all you found in that room?"_

Derring was not surprised the tech-priest knew of his entrance into the side room, in fact he had counted on it and crafted an answer based on what he had seen.

"It looks as if someone set fire to the room to hide something, these I found underneath a broken cogitator... they were lucky to of survived the fire"

He had rubbed the two data slates against some objects in the room so they would appear to of taken some heat damage and he hoped it would fool the tech-priest who looked back up at him with it's augmented eye lenses that whirred and clicked as they focused in.

"_this is all?"_

Nervous would barley describe the feeling Derring had and he felt the wight of the hidden slate in his bag like a cannonball of guilt weighing him down but he stood tall and straight faced ready to answer and swallowed down his nerves.

"yes, everything else in the room was destroyed by the fire"

The tech-priest stood in silence for a whole minute before handing him back the two slates.

"_Deposit these at the reclamation desk, collect your bonus and return to the hab in preparation for your next shift in three days time"_

Derring bowed again and moved off feeling a wave of relief wash over him as he passed through the final set of scanners, he climbed the stairs until he reached the top and entered the main hall where the reclamation desk stood with senior archivist behind it collecting the slates while palatine enforcers stood around key points in the room with with their rifles held tight.

He handed over the two slates after waiting in the queue for a few minutes and then headed out of the hall where security slowly lessened until he was walking down a quiet street towards the hab block.

Then something in the back of his mind whispered to him and told him to look at the slate so he stepped into a small alley where a few rodents scurried about looking for scraps, he pulled the slate from it's hiding place and looked over the symbol on the back, nothing was known about the XI legion and he imagined it was on the list of sensitive material meant to be confiscated by the tech-priest but in all honesty what harm would it do to see what was on it and he would never have to tell anyone what he read but he would have knowledge no one else knew and that excited him.

He ran his hands across the symbol one more time before securing the slate back in it's hiding place and heading off towards his hab block, in the dark from deeper in the alley a servo skull lifted out of it's hidden positions and floated back to it's master who examined the what it had recorded, the symbol could be clearly seen and the long haired woman beneath the cloak smiled before opening a vox.

"My Lords... I may have something for you"

**Cyntax: Hab Units**

The Archivists had all been given especially nice hab units as a gift to ensure their loyalty to the project, they were spacious,well furnished and stocked with good food and drink as well as all the amenity's they could ever need.

Derring had begin working on the data slate straight away, he had opted not to charge it up until he had looked at the damage and that had been a good move on his part because some of the circuitry around the power node had been damage and if he had attempted to charge it the whole thing would of exploded and it would of all been for nothing.

He carefully removed the damaged parts and began to replace them as his father had shown him taking his time to test the connectivity and power distribution before getting ready to turn it on, finally he finished it and rested it down on his desk, he reached for the power button and then he jumped as three knocks came at his door, he quickly hid the slate under a pile of other slates that were his own notes on old expeditions an went to open the door.

He opened it to reveal a man who looked similar to him wearing a fairly decent shirt and pants combination, he had a faint smile on his face and seemed a little nervous.

"Hello brother" he said

Derring looked down the hall behind his sibling before looking back to him.

"what are you doing here?" he asked

"I had heard you were working here on Cyntax and I thought maybe we could talk... can I come in?"

Derring looked back at his one year older brother, they had not spoken in a few years but it hadn't been a falling out just a gradual loss of contact but for him to show up now was rather interesting as his family home was two systems away but perhaps it was the god emperors will that they reconnect so he opened the door and welcomed him in.

His brother entered in and looked around before turning back to him as he closed and locked the door.

"I see the empress did not lie when she said archivists would get good habitation units"

Derring nodded.

"The bonus's are good as well, listen Calstin... I am sorry I haven't contacted you since the shortly after the funeral but..."

His brother held his hand up in dismissal.

"Laurna's death was hard on all of us... but we should of done more to stay together as a family"

Derring took a breath and sighed.

"perhaps had I of stayed around mother would not of fallen into dementia so fast..."

"Mother was ill before Laurna died and you know that, I don't think you being around more would of changed anything" Calstin said as Derring entered the kitchen and began boiling some water

"Still I should have been there... sugar?"

"No Melissa has me on a diet after the magos biologis told me my blood pressure was too high... Listen I have something to ask of you?"

"oh?" Derring said emerging from the kitchen and handing his brother one of the cups

"Well I was hoping you would come back to Rhynax with me and help me raise a new generation of archivists, you did after all teach at the academy there for two years and you have over twenty years of experience"

Derring sat down on a small couch and looked to his brother.

"I would like to... but I signed a contract, I have to finish out the year"

Calstin shook his head.

"I checked, you can leave the contract at anytime, you will forfeit any future bonus's for achieved quotas but beyond that these no real punishment for leaving the project!"

Derring thought about this, it would be nice to work with his own family again but his eyes kept drifting to the slate hidden under a pile of others.

"How long are you in town for?"

"A few days" Calstin responded

Derring nodded.

"Well can I take those few days to think about it?"

Calstin nodded.

"Of course" he said handing him his vox number "If you have any questions just give me a call but we really would love to have you back... Melissa has a friend who I think you would enjoy meeting"

Derring chuckled.

"Still trying to play match maker"

Calstin laughed as well.

"Just don't want to see you miss out brother"

"I appreciate it Cal... I will call you in a couple of days and let you know my decision"

Calstin placed the half drunk tea on the side and made his way to the door.

"I will be aboard the "Unearthed Redemption" if you need anything but I do hope you will join us brother"

Calstin left and the door closed behind him, Derring carefully locked the door after giving his brother time to walk down the corridor because he didn't want him thinking he was rejecting his offer or had something to hide..., something to hide where did that notion come from he thought as he pulled the data slate from the pile carefully so as not to topple the others.

He laid it on his desk and just starred at it with excitement and nerves as he fiddled with his his shirt that now suddenly felt like a noose around his neck, maybe this had been a bad idea, if the XI had been purged as rumour suggested it was probably for good reason, for all he knew their primarch was a traitor like Horus Lupercal had been but the idea of what information might be held on that slate pushed all the buttons for him as an archivist and he had to know.

Hours must of passed as he starred at the slate and he soon found himself feeling hungry and thirsty without even knowing it, he picked up the slate and slid his finger towards the power button but then he stopped himself and placed the slate in his safe that was mounted under his desk, he felt a wight of relief wash over him but yet he could hear a nagging voice in the back of his head telling him to turn on the slate.

He dismissed it as best he could but it nagged and nagged to the point where he had to get out of his hab unit, drink would help calm his nerves... yes a drink and some decent food, so he left his Hab block leaving the slate secure in his safe and proceeded to nearby pub that served good food and drink.

It was a quiet night and he pulled a seat up at the bar and looked over the menu as the smell of cooked meat and booze filled his nostrils, it made him feel better and the voice that nagged him had subsided, he put it down to his guilty conscience and the conflict it caused him against his training as a certified archivist, it was there job to uncover the past so yes it must have been that part of his mind telling him it was ok but for now he just wanted to forget about the data slate and relax.

"What ye avin?" a rather burley looking woman asked him from behind the bar

"Just a Cyntaxian beer and some zorokin wings please"

The Zorokin was a local delicacy and a favourite of his, he had seen some of the birds once on a farm south of the city and found them to be rather ugly looking animals yet their meat was succulent and moist with a sweet flavour although that could just be the seasoning used by the cooks.

There was a noise next time as a young lady with short brown hair pulled up a chair next to him at the counter, she gave him a slight nod and he smiled at her, she was very attractive and looked fairly well off for someone who ate here and she wore an administrators uniform just under her coat.

"Hi!" she said with some excitement

Derring smiled at her and nodded.

"hello, don't normally see administrators around here... you lost?"

The woman brushed her hair back and smiled a smile that suggested flirtation.

"I'm one of the admins for the archivist project!" she said before looking at his uniform "I guess your one of them... must be cold and lonely down in those catacombs"

Now she was definitely flirting with him, it had been a while since he had any luck with a woman and given he was looking to relax perhaps she could be a good distraction.

"it can be" he said as his food was placed down and the woman ordered the same as he had from the bartender, he took a bite out of one of the wings before continuing "There isn't much company down there especially as the skitarii are very cold"

"Well I know how it feels, the administration offices are so bland and formal it feels like a prison" she said coyly as her food and drink was brought to her and she began eating it

Derring could see where the conversation was going and licked his lips in some anticipation as he ate.

"Well perhaps we can make each other feel a little less lonely" he said pulling some credits from his wallet and placing them down on the bar, there was enough to pay for both meals and she looked back at him raising her eye brows

"let's go!" she exclaimed and grabbed his hand dragging him out of the bar

As they left an older woman on another table watched them leave, she finished her drink and left.

She took an elevator down to one of the mid levels and walked down a quiet street where a few felines dug through the trash and a canid barked in the distance at some unseen foe, she took a right turn until she reached a house at the end of the street where she banged on the door, a small hatch opened and two eyes starred out at her.

"a man approaches a soldier and says a storm is coming"

"the soldier replies... I am the storm" the woman responded and clunks came from the door before it swung open

She proceeded inside where three legionaries in green and blue armour were gathered, two were sat to the side cleaning their weapons whilst the third was stood looking over a map of the city.

"My lord you did not tell me another agent was assigned to this mission!"

The marine turned from the map to look at her, his face was the face of all those from the twentieth legion, surgically altered so that they would all have the image of their primarch.

"No other agents are in play Rhonda!?" the marine said clearly puzzled by her statement

"I have served the hydra since my birth I know another agent when I see one!" she exclaimed

"you are mistaken my friend we entrusted only you with this task"

One of the marines who was putting his weapon back together laughed.

"Perhaps your getting too old for this Rhonda" he said as he continued to laugh until the first marine shot him a look that silenced him

"Rhonda I assure you no other agents in play but am I to assume you failed to make contact with the target?"

Rhonda nodded.

"tell me about this other... agent"

"she was young, short brown hair and wore an administrators uniform but the way she came on to the archivist was so obvious that I am surprised he even fell for it"

The marine rubbed his chin in thought.

"we must have that data slate but we can not risk being detected... perhaps this other agent will acquire it for us then we can simply take it from them"

"we must find out who she works for, inquisition, planetary defence forces maybe even the enforcers!" the marine who sat next to the one who laughed said and the leader nodded

"Rhonda you must keep track of the archivist and try to find out who this other agent is but be careful because if she is a member of the inquisition our presence here would be compromised if she was to discover you"

"She will not but if I am to pursue the data slate then someone else will have to look into our mysterious agent"

The alpha legion commander nodded and turned to the two who were still cleaning their bolters.

"Contact our agent inside the administratum and have them find out what they can on this woman, in the mean time Rhonda do what you can to get close to the archivist, we must have that slate... for the emperor"

**Derring's Hab Unit**

Derring had forgotten the pleasure of having a naked female body pressed against his own and the sounds that came from both of them as they probed each others bodies with their hands and other extremities, eventually she flung him on to his back and mounted him on top. She shrieked with such joy and squeezed him between her thighs so hard he could barley breathe, it was quite painful and he hoped she would see the expression on his face and stop but she didn't and she seamed to be deriving more pleasure from his pain, he tried to use his hands to lift her slightly and reduce the squeezing from her legs but she grabbed his wrists and held them above his head.

He felt her nails dig in and cut into his skin like a sharp blade and he yelped a little as she dug them in deeper as if the more he hurt the better she felt, he tried to say something but she screamed louder as if on purpose to cover up his pleas to slow down then all of a sudden she just stopped and in an unholy impossible movement her neck almost twisted round before snapping back to look down upon him.

"_Where is the slate_?" a warped voice came from her mouth

"What are... you...you talking about!" he said as she leant over him

She smiled and the skin pulled back slightly from her mouth revealing a purple bubbling set of gums that were clearly not natural.

"what are you!" he exclaimed in fear

A purple tail came from around her back and stroked his chest.

"_We were the ones who embraced him when he fell into our realm, he was dying and we gave him life again in exchange for..._."

"for what?"

"_Blood" _she hissed as she wrapped the tail around his neck and began to choke him "_for over ten millennia after his defeat we waited and now we can bring him back to us!"_

Ronda had climbed a small set of fire stairs out side a building opposite Derring's hab, she looked and saw the girl riding him and sighed and lowered the magnification goggles to take a drink, she rose them again and spat out the liquid she just swallowed.

The woman had a purple tail and it was locked around the archivist's neck, she no longer looked human and was clearly torturing him likely for information on where the slate was.

She dropped down and began running across the street whilst opening a vox, it was against protocol but she doubted she could fight whatever it was that was attacking the archivist.

"My lords I need your help"

Derring could not scream as the creature cut into him with it's claws, it clearly understood the most sensitive parts of a man's body because she lowered one of her hands down to his groin and grabbed his testicles and began to squeeze them so hard he felt like he was going to die.

"_Tell me where it is and the pain ends ….. at least for a short while"_

"It's... in th...the saf...safe" he said choking

The creature released the tail from his next and got off him, he couldn't move for the pain that had been inflicted on him and watched as the creature ripped the door off the safe with little effort before lifting the slate out and holding high like some prize.

"_At last we have found his lost world!"_

"take it...but please just let me go!" Derring was barley able to say

The creature put the slate down on the desk and walked towards him licking it's lips with an inhuman tongue.

"_after we Finnish making love!" _

Derring tried to get off the bed but fell off it to the side and the creature bent down to him.

"_good you have some fight left... that will make it all the more joyous!"_

The door behind the creature flung open and a space marine in Alpha legion colours charged at the creature with an electrified fist and punched the creature sending it spiralling backwards over the other side of the bed, perhaps realizing it was out matched as another legionnaire stepped through the door it kicked open the window and jumped out.

One of the legionaries went to shot at it but the other stopped him.

"_If you open fire we will be detected, let it run for now"_

Rhonda stepped in and saw the slate and Derring.

"pick him up he's coming with us, Alpharius has a plan"

As one of the marines picked him up Derring felt exhaustion catch him up and he feinted...

**Cyntax: Hidden Alpha legion Base**

Derring slowly stirred and felt sharp pains as he twisted himself around to get a view of where he was, he tried to remember what had happened and for a second he thought it had all been a bad dream brought on by alcohol and poorly cooked Zorokin wings until he realised his throat was on fire and he could barley open his mouth without it hurting.

There was a mirror to the side of him and he looked to see himself, his short hair was a mess and he was wearing some kind of lose fitting shirt and pants, there was also a large red mark where the thing had wrapped it's tail around his next and his testicles still felt like they were trapped in a vice.

The door to the side of him opened and a woman in a green tunic entered, just behind her before she closed the door he saw a blue and green space marine examining something on a desk, she looked at him and smiled, she had amber coloured hair and the pale white skin complexion common to most Cyntraxians.

"How are you feeling?"

He stayed silent as she went to a jug on a nearby bedside table and poured some water into a glass before holding it out towards him but he recoiled back and tightened himself up into the corner.

"I know you have a lot of questions and I am sure your frightened but we mean you no harm"

She sighed when he didn't respond and placed the cup down back on the table.

"We need your help..."

Derring went to respond but the pain from his throat made him wince, the woman took a pill from her pocket and placed it next to the water and Derring looked at it then back at her.

"It's an anti-inflammatory pain killer, it will sooth your throat and lessen the pain"

He narrowed his eyes at her and she sighed again.

"Why would we save your life and then poison you just hours later?"

That was logical Derring thought but that didn't mean the pill was safe to take, it could be some kind of mind control tablet or something to make him commit an act of treason or anything but his throat was really hurting and his mouth was dryer that the desert of Rhynax so he quickly he popped the pill in his mouth and drank all the water in the cup.

His throat began to feel better and the pain lessened, he quickly spat out the question that was first on his mind.

"Why did you send a demon after me!"

"we didn't" She said pouring some more water from the jug for him "The truth is we don't even know what that thing was... I mean it took a direct hit from a power fist and barley felt it"

"It was a demon!" Derring shouted causing his throat to hurt slightly

"Derring not all warp creatures are the same, the fact that this one was able to disguise it's self so well and was able to find you is impressive, and shows it is not one of the many mindless horrors that come from the warp"

"your allied with them and how did it even find me, how did it know that I had that slate"

The woman got a little upset at the accusation and shot back.

"The Alpha legion does it's best not to associate with the things in the warp... and we don't know how it found you... our best guess is that it's been watching for a long time" she said before standing up "Look my name is Rhonda... there are some of your clothes in the dresser, if you get changed then come out to meet the others we will explain everything but I am not lying when I say we need your help... and believe what you want about the twentieth but everything we do we do for the emperor"

She left the room and shut the door behind her and Derring rushed to the dresser, he quickly got changed and searched his pockets for anything useful, there was some change, enough to call his brother so he went to the door and listened carefully.

He couldn't hear anything and pushed the door open slowly, the first thing he saw was marine sat in a corner sat cross legged in what appeared to be some kind of trance but no one else was visible and he stepped out.

"Oh good your dressed"

Rhonda made him jump and he looked at her and the other two marines, one was sat at a cogitator whilst the other was stood by a table looking at him with some malice although despite that he did not look what he expected a traitor to look like.

"Derring come here and let me introduce you to..."

"Alpharius, I am Alpharius!" the marine said

"You all say that but he's dead!" Derring responded feeling momentarily like a hero for reminding the marine his gene sire was dead

"The Hydra has many heads" the marine at the cogitator interjected

The momentary feeling of pride was lost in that response for Derring as he understood even without the primarch the Alpha Legion was more than capable.

"I know you have questions and I expect you will not let us speak until those are answered so speak them first"

Derring was surprised at this statement, this Alpharius had already predicted his next move and it unnerved him as well as leaving him slightly impressed.

"How did the demon find me! how did you find me!?"

Alpharius took a deep breath before responding and handing Derring a data slate, it contained a picture of the woman he had met at the bar.

"Is that the woman you were with?"

"Yes but this picture looks very old"

Alpharius nodded.

"That is because that picture is from an unsolved missing persons case from over ten millennia ago, long before the heresy!"

Derring looked down at the picture in disbelief.

"But ….. how can that be?"

"Some demons from the warp can take the skin of others and wear it like you would a piece of clothing, this demon must of arrived here a long time ago but we can not ascertain when that was or why it was drawn here... as for how it found you..." Rhonda trailed off and looked at Alpharius who finished the sentence

"We think this creature wasn't looking for you specifically but the information on the data slate and since analysing it I believe we now know why"

Derring looked around trying to figure out if there was a safe way to run that would allow him to get away but every door was shut and he had no idea where he was.

"What was on the slate?" he asked

"The location of the eleventh legions home-world, it appears trading ships from this system would regularly visit and this appears to be a cargo manifest of some sort, some of the data has corrupted but it would appear this was one of the last transport ships that ever visited there"

Derring remembered the words the demon had spoken as she held the slate.

"It mentioned something about finding his lost world... but surely they knew where it was...and what does she want with the location!"

"That is still a mystery which is why we need your help" Rhonda said

"My help! your part of a legion... you don't need a simple archivist"

The Marine at the cogitator growled and made an uncomfortable shift in his seat.

"Alistravia has made it difficult for us to operate as easily as we used too, we are the only cell on this world and can not risk detection but we can still recruit others to assist us like yourself"

Derring laughed a little.

"I am not surprised she's made it difficult for you, you tried to blow up one of her ships" he said referring to the incident on Theadras

Alpharius scoffed at the remark.

"that particular agent had become a liability so we used her knowing she would be caught and be killed or take her own life to prevent capture but her attempt gave us valuable insight into the second legion and their technology... we will have to rethink our approach when tackling them"

"well I am not going to betray the imperium so forget it!" he said defiantly before making a rude gesture to Alpharius

The space marine seemed unmoved by Derring's defiance and looked to Rhonda.

"Derring we are not asking you to betray the imperium, everything we do we do for the emperor and by extension the imperium... I understand how that might not seam the case but if that creature reaches this world and finds what it's looking for then the imperium could face an unprecedented threat"

"We have to assume the eleventh were purged for good reason, perhaps they held a dangerous weapon or something more sinister is going on but whatever the case we must prevent the creature from obtaining it!" Alpharius said

"But to give it to a traitor legion would be blasphemous! who knows what you would do with such a thing!" Derring said with some force

"Our intention is to take what ever it is and lock it away for good... we have a place for dangerous relics... no one would ever find it there"

Derring wanted to not believe them but the way Alpharius spoke did not come across as false and what they said made a lot of sense, he then remembered something else.

"I think I know what there looking for!" he suddenly exclaimed

"Go on" Alpharius said

"That demon mentioned that he fell into their realm and embraced him, they way it came across was like …... he was their lover, what if the primarch of that legion is still on that world... buried somewhere"

Alpharius nodded in understanding.

"Of course... with the body of a primarch a demon of the warp could do many dangerous things, this is a concerning development and we must make haste..." the marine said looking to Rhonda who nodded

"Derring we need your help, we must get to the planet before the creature does... we are in luck as she did not read anything on the slate but it stands to reason there could be other slates and the next person might not be so lucky"

"You still haven't answered one of my questions!" Derring said "... how did you find me!?"

"we have as much interest in the information being recovered as the imperium does so we have been watching and on occasion getting our hands on a few of the data slates, Rhonda saw you leaving the area like a man with a guilty conscience so she used a servo skull to spy on you... she was also watching when the demon attacked"

Derring found he wasn't annoyed at being spied on and realised just how little he know about the people around him.

"So why do you need my help?"

"Your brother is here and he has a ship"

"he won't help you!" Derring said

Rhonda shook her head.

"which is why we are going to have to do this with some deception... but first we have to have your oath..."

"my oath?" Derring asked

"An oath that you will not hand over Rhonda and us whilst serving the legion and this includes when this job is complete" Alpharius said

"I will as agree to that as long as you don't harm my brother or his family and they are kept completely out of this"

Alpharius nodded.

"you have my word they will know nothing about what has occurred"

Derring took a deep breath, he was about to cross a line he could never come back from but the fate of the imperium was at stake and Alpharius came across as honest and not a traitor, he realised that could be a trick but he had to roll the dice and hope it landed in his favour.

"Alright then... what's your plan!"

**Cyntax: Alleyway **

Failure is what the creature from the warp had begun to think at first, those blasted astartes showed up at the just the right time before she could strip the archivist of his skin. Her old skin was ruined now but it had been one of many it had used.

It's first skin had been the captain of one of the final cargo carriers to leave the primarchs home world, she had been sent to infiltrate and help carry the primarchs influence to corrupt other worlds but when the ship had arrived at Cyntax they had been quarantined and their data banks purged.

All they had been told was that any information regarding the eleventh was now classified and they had ordered the captain to hand over all his personal data slates including all those that contained information needed to get back.

In it's next skin as a member of the arbites it tried to gain access to the vast catacombs where the slates and cogitators had been stored but when he got there an incendiary device had already been detonated and it had been his attempt to get back into the room afterwards that had drawn suspicion so it shed that skin and found a young administrator who it tortured her for days until she revealed all the information taken about the eleventh had been locked away in the burning room, as the human screamed and begged for mercy as it pealed her skin from her flesh it came up with an idea.

Patience would be needed and years could pass but at some point someone would open that room and then maybe it could get back, but more than just a few years passed, the heresy came and went but still no one opened the room, it wasn't until the second legions primarch sat on the throne did the potential for it opening become real.

It had watched in it's skin for weeks until finally someone dared to open the room, she had watched behind the lenses of protective goggles as it's skin filled the role of a junior administrator again, the real girl she had killed was not recognizable to people in this time so no one ever checked up or discovered she was a missing person.

It was when she smelt tinge of burnt metal on a passing archivist she had her chance, she could tell he had it on him because of the stench of fear coming from him, he was afraid of what would happen if he was caught, but it had all gone wrong although there was still a chance, if she could locate the archivist again and follow him maybe another opportunity would present it's self.

First though she needed a new skin and as she peered out along the side street she spotted a human woman with a short skirt and top making suggestive signals to passing men, most were ignoring her but a few were interested.

After a few minutes one of the men and her began walking down the alleyway and she saw her opportunity shortly after they had sex, the man went to pee so she broke his neck quickly before he could scream, the woman was counting her cash on a near by dumpster and did not see her approach, she grabbed her and dragged the prostitute into the dark.

**Cyntax Orbit**

The "Unearthed Redemption" was in dock taking on cargo and specialist archivist equipment, Derring and Rhonda walked on to the main deck and through to the bridge where Calstin waited along with his wife Melissa and there eight year old daughter Tandy who was delighted to see her uncle after so many years.

"Uncle Derring!" she squealed and ran to hug him

Derring was still a bit sore from the attack but did his best not to appear wounded as the child held a tight grip.

Rhonda stepped aside as the family greeted him and they hugged and shook hands, it was quite a warm moment and it reminded Rhonda that despite the dark times they lived in there was still love between family.

"So you mentioned something about a guest?" Calstin said looking at Rhonda

"Yes" Derring started "This is inquisitor Rhonda Gillhaney"

Rhonda produced the very official rosette that would by pass all but the most sophisticated scanners.

"How can we help you inquisitor?" Melissa said with curiosity

"Do you have a private room where we can talk?" Rhonda said

Calstin nodded.

"Yes of course …. Thwomp!?" he said shouting over to a very large Ogryn carrying a piece of machinery

It stomped over to them and smiled the best it could with it's mutated facial features.

"Yes boss?"

"Thwomp will you take Tandy back to our quarters whilst I speak privately with my brother and his guest please"

"But daddy I wanted to show uncle Derring my room"

"he can come and see it later sweetie" Melissa said

"ok" Tandy said reluctantly

Thwomp put the console down where it was meant to go and guided the little girl off the bridge as the others entered the captains room.

Calstin sat on a couch with his wife while Derring and Rhonda sat on two chairs opposite.

"Firstly I must ask that you do not repeat what you are about to hear, information leeks must be kept to a minimum and we can not have the crew gossiping as it may cause panic"

Calstin and his wife nodded and Rhonda smiled.

"I am here to ask you if we may use your ship for an expedition!"

"What kind of expedition?" Calstin asked

Rhonda nodded to Derring who reached into his jacket and pulled out the data slate, he turned it on and handed it to his brother who then passed it to his wife, both were shocked at the information they read and were quiet as Rhonda continued.

"Derring found this slate and of course handed it into the correct authorities however shortly after he was assaulted by someone looking to acquire the information contained on the slate and we believe these were servants of chaos, thankfully your brother was able to get away with only a few minor injuries"

"I thought I saw you limping when you came in Derring, you are alright?"

Derring nodded.

"luckily I was able to attract the attention of some arbites"

"After this we realized that there may be something of value on the elevenths home world, possibly a weapon but we don't truly know so while my colleagues pursue the agents of the despoiler on Cyntax it was decided a ship must be sent to this world to recover whatever it is they are after and secure it within the vaults of the inquisition where it can be protected"

"But surely a full fleet with some astartes would be more suited for this... we have only a basic security force" Melissa said

Rhonda nodded in understanding.

"Normally we would but after much debate it was decided sending a full fleet might attract unwanted attention but one ship might be better able to go unnoticed and we don't believe there will be any need for combat troops... the planet is believed to be deserted but should it appear otherwise we will withdraw and reconsider our approach"

"So your commandeering our ship?" Calstin said but Rhonda shook her head

"I'd rather not as that requires large amounts of paper work to fill in later which is why we asked Derring to speak to you about brining me aboard and discussing it but if I do have to do it the official way I will"

"I suppose it's reasonable... what will happen after we recover this item?" Melissa asked

"We will proceed to a small inquisition base where we will await a fleet that will take the item off us and to a secure inquisition base where it will be locked away forever and of course you will be generously compensated"

The compensation was the only true part of that sentence, the base was actually an Alpha Legion base that operated covertly just inside imperial space and the fleet would not be from the inquisition but agents of the Alpha Legion merely disguised as inquisitional forces but his brother and sister in law would never know any of this and would remain forever the case.

"I imagine we can't speak about any of this once it's over?" Calstin said

"We trust in your discretion... and Derring has vouched for you which is good enough for us"

"Well then I suppose we can agree to do this then... but we have some cargo still waiting to be brought on board and I can not afford to leave it behind right now!" Calstin stated

"I thank you for helping us and I realise your cargo is important but time is of the essence so I must ask you speed it up anyway you can"

"Oh it shouldn't take long... it's just a couple of earth movers" Melissa said

**Cyntax orbit: Dock**

A heavy hauler trundled past as Viktor made his way back towards the "Unearthed Redemption", the last of the cargo was being moved on to the ship and all the documents were signed and completed.

He had heard the ship was going on an errand else where before heading back to Rhynax so he had messaged his girlfriend that he would be late back but the truth was he was never going to make it back because from a distance a woman watched him before she stepped out into his field of view.

"Hey sailor" she said blowing a kiss at him

She was a prostitute clearly but fairly attractive and he nodded to her as he moved to walk past.

"Fancy a little fun before you set off" she said winking at him

"I have someone waiting for me back home" he said as the woman pushed up against him

"I understand sweetie... but how long as it been since you felt the embrace of another, I could teach you some things that would help you make sure your girlfriend is never unsatisfied"

Viktor looked around to see if anyone else was about before turning back to the woman.

"Like what?"

"Come into this container and I will show you" she said indicating a the poorly lit interior of a cargo container

"Alright but I ain't got long"

"Trust me sweetie" she said putting her arm around him "This will only take a minute"

No one heard the real Viktor die and when he stepped out of the container and zipped up his pants it was another looking out from behind his skin, he made his way to boarding platform and greeted a few of the other workers, one of them mentioned something about a game of cards later but he quickly refused saying he had a lot of work to do which was met with one of the workers saying how he never liked to have any fun and he chuckled along with them, humans were easy to deceive for the most part.

He was soon aboard and quickly began studying the layout of the ship, he would have to be careful as he couldn't just kill the whole crew, someone had to guide the ship, after tracking the archivist and the fake inquisitor he realized what was happening and had formulated a plan, he would let the humans do everything for him and then he would strike.

**Terra**

One marine exited from the stork with a balding head and psyker hood he made his way to meet Gigas who stood at the bottom of the platform, his armour was like that of the kill team he was about to join and his long moustache was blown about as the stork lifted off back into orbit.

Gigas was stood alone and nodded as the psyker stepped close to him.

"I'm still not sure about this Gigas... it's been a long time since I stood shoulder to shoulder with comrades"

"You are a fine warrior and have been sat mourning for far too long, it's time you stepped up... when my mother gave you asylum she did state that some day this debt would have to be repaid and this is what she is asking of you Zovak"

The psyker sighed and nodded.

"Do you think they will accept me... given my former legion?" he asked as the two walked inside

They turned down a corridor and stepped through into another before Gigas responded.

"Previous legion loyalties mean nothing within this group... they may hold those legions gene seeds but do not serve them anymore just like you, acceptance will come"

They entered a room with several beds, five marines and one human, they all looked over to Gigas and him.

"This is Zovak Norisicjch, he is to join you on any operations going forward"

Koman walked up to Zovak and shook his hand.

"well met brother, I am glad to meet you... this is Kinkade, Marklar, Faraq, Maxis and Kendra" he said indicating the people in the room who either nodded or raised their hand in welcome to him

"It is a pleasure to meet you all" he said bowing slightly

Koman looked to Gigas who was expecting a question from the former Black Templar.

"Have we any missions yet?"

"I am to speak with Mother later, I have produced a list of targets that need dealing with and assuming she has nothing more pressing you will be deployed to those"

Koman sighed but nodded in understanding and the giant marine stomped off out of the room leaving Zovak with them who made his way to one of the empty arming bunks, he allowed the Estrellan armour drone to take his equipment but he stayed armoured since the others were also.

"So what legion to you come from" Kinkade asked

Zovak had expected this to be the first question and did not know how to respond without seaming overly defensive.

"My legion no longer exists, it is unfortunate but such is life"

"What happened to them?" Faraq asked as he tinkered with a small device

Zovak was trying to think of a way to excuse himself from having to speak on this but luckily Koman came to his rescue.

"A story for another time perhaps for now we are glad to have you with us"

Everyone nodded in agreement and Zovak was spared any need to have to explain his past for the moment.

**Cyntax: Catacombs**

Inquisitor Tobias Kimmlar hated being woken up early and the coffee he had in his cup was not going to be enough to wake him, his junior had woken him at 2:45 repeatedly banging on his door until he opened it.

She hadn't been shocked by the woman looking out from his bed clearly annoyed at being woken as well simply because she had walked in on him in the act so many times before it just became the norm to her now, she had told him a story of how an archivist had opened some room and stolen something but why it needed an inquisitor he could not fathom or maybe she told him and he was just too tired to listen.

They had taken the path down into the catacombs and she guided him into a room with old style cogitators and broken slates, two officers of the arbites were examining different items in the room while a senior detective was talking with the tech-priest who he assumed was the Martian assigned with processing the slates recovered here.

"Ah inquisitor Kimmlar good" the detective said as his junior guided him in before leaving the room "It would appear we have a security breech and..."

"_SENSITIVE INFORMATION HAS BEEN STOLEN!" _The Martian shrieked

Tobias looked around the room and shook himself to wake up a bit, it was full of burnt wreckage and destroyed equipment, he steadied himself, rubbed his eyes and smiled.

"Ok Start from the beginning if you would please"

"_I am sure you are aware of the reclamation project" _The Tech-priest said

"Yes we all had a full brief, information recovered through old data slates and cogitators is to be reintegrated into the imperial data banks in order to restore the imperial knowledge base, all sensitive information is to be confiscated and assessed"

The Tech-priest made a head movement that indicated a nod of acknowledgement before continuing.

"_As a side project ordered by the empress any damaged equipment is to be repaired firstly by us but if not it is to be passed to her own engineers who will make a second attempt, after archivist Derring Algor informed me this room had been engulfed by a fire I decided to try and recover what was left and after I discovered the incendiary device I was able to deduce this room held rather sensitive information which was to be destroyed on finding!" _

"And that information was?" Tobias asked

The Tech-priest's augmented eyes looked over at the two junior officers still examining material and the detective understood so he turned to them.

"Leave us!"

The juniors needed no further order and left the room before the tech-priest continued.

"_After repairing a few of the slates we discovered this room contained information solely on the eleventh legion and included things such as home world location and I believe archivist Algor took a slate containing that information, he may even be working for the enemy!"_

"That is a rather strong accusation tech-priest" Tobias said

"_He came into this room of his own will, he told one of the skitarii he had found information leading to this room so what else could it be!"_

Tobias was getting annoyed at the tech-priest and his insinuations, the Martians were curious in this way because they relied on science yet made claims with barley any evidence at all.

"maybe he was just curious, archivists are know for their curiosity... even if it does lead them into danger at times"

The tech-priest nodded to the detective who handed Tobias a slate of pics taken at Derring's habitation unit, it looked like some kind of fight had taken place and a safe was wide open with the door looking it had been yanked off with some force.

"Perhaps the archivist was attacked and how do you know if he even took something from this room at all?"

"_the investigators discovered a hidden panel under his scanner which had room for a slate" _the tech-priest said

"Alright lets assume he made that secret panel to smuggle information out but to who and where?"

"we have two suspects" the detective said pulling another slate "the first is a Cyntraxian citizen but we have no name or address for her and the second..."

The detective trailed off like he was struggling with the last suspects information so Tobias game him a nudge.

"the second?"

"the second has been dead since before the heresy" he said handing him the slate "She went missing and her body was never found yet she was seen leaving a pub with Derring the night this attack occurred"

Tobias flipped through the slates information, the image the security devices had was an exact match for the woman on the missing persons case.

"Interesting, the question is which one attacked Algor, do you have any idea where he is now?"

The detective handed him another slate.

"he boarded a ship the "unearthed Redemption", it is registered to his brother and as you can see he did not board it alone"

The slate contained another security captured pic of Derring along with the first suspect who was wearing inquisitor robes.

"Where is that ship heading"

"_it's original flight plan was to Rhynax however an hour before it's departure it submitted another flight plan only this time they were heading to the Cestus cluster!"_

"that's along way from Rhynax and there are only three systems populated out that way..."

"Apparently they are going to explore ruins on Belfarus primus"

"there are no ruins on that world!"

"_Exactly!"_

Tobias understood the point they were trying to make now.

"JENNA!" he shouted and his junior came through the door

"Yes inquisitor?"

"Get me access to the astropathic choir... I need to get a message to Terra!"

**Unearthed Redemption: Dining Room**

The ship was ten hours into it's journey and the Rhonda, Derring and the rest of the family sat down for a meal as some minor turbulence shook the ship as the passed through the warp with gellar fields at maximum strength as requested by the inquisitor.

A meal of steak, potatoes and assorted vegetables had been prepared and they had sat down with Tandy asking Rhonda lots of questions about being an inquisitor.

"Do you get to travel all across the galaxy!" she said with excitement after a myriad of other questions

"Sometimes" Rhonda responded "But I am stationed on Cyntax so I mostly travel around that sub sector"

"That's so cool... I wanna be an inquisitor when I grow up!"

"yes but in order to do that you first have to eat your vegetables!" her mother said glaring at her

Tandy hung her head and began shovelling some of the greens into her mouth but clearly wasn't enjoying them.

"So inquisitor do you get to Rhynax much?"

"I haven't been to Rhynax in a few years as work has kept me away, and please call me Rhonda"

The last time Rhonda had even left Cyntax was two years ago and that was to Rhynax to meet up with the Alpha legion cell there and assist them in sabotaging some fuel refining platforms which had gone mostly as planned until an unscheduled stop by an astartes ship from the Black Templars who were quick to notice the unusual fuel tap adjustments, most of the Rhynax cell were killed in ensuing fight and she had been lucky to make it to a departing ship and get back to Cyntax.

"After this mission is complete will Derring be able to come back with us to Rhynax or will you need him for debriefing?" Calstin asked as he cut up some of his steak

"Oh he should be be find to return to Rhynax, if there is anything we need to follow up on we can send a junior to talk with him, he said you were looking to train some new archivists?"

"Oh yes" Melissa said with some glee "There are a lot of places in the galaxy where there are ruins of lost civilization, I know the inquisition frowns upon our work and calls it dangerous but it does have some benefits to the imperium"

"Well the official line from the lord of the inquisition is that we are to discourage such activities without supervision but personally there are things I believe we can learn from the people who inhabited the galaxy before us but it is dangerous" Rhonda said responding in a way to try connect with the group to keep them from asking deeper questions

This was her first time playing the role of an inquisitor and before she had left with Derring to come and speak to his brother Alpharius had spend a good solid hour drilling into her everything she should know, there was a lot more to impersonating an inquisitor but they had such little time so it was rushed but there was no other way.

"It can be dangerous" Derring said with a sigh "we lost our sister to it"

"I am sorry to hear that" Rhonda said with some sympathy

"Do you have any family?" Calstin said trying to steer the conversation away from the death of his sibling

"Not any brothers or sisters no but the team I normally work with on Cyntax have kind of become my family" she said with a smile

Of course she was referring to the small group of marines and other agents on Cyntax whose number had been vastly reduced due to new security measures and more in depth checks brought in by the high council of Terra on the behalf of the empress who was coming down hard in trying to flush Alpha legion and other traitors out of hiding by making them feel the squeeze of an ever tightening noose and it had so far been very successful and on some worlds the legion had lost all it's agents either through capture or death.

A few managed to flee to worlds where the legions influence was stronger but now they were also beginning to lose agents so the decision had been made to reduce each cell to a small manageable number and reduce exposure which meant more limited operations but on worlds like Cyntax it had allowed them to continue operating.

"but I get to travel and meet such interesting people so I make a lot of friends on other worlds" she said after to try and undo the sombre mood

"Have you ever seen any tyranids?!" Tandy suddenly exclaimed

"No I haven't but a colleague of mine was on a world that was attacked and he said there very scary"

"what about Eldar or orks?" the child said

"I am sorry no, most of what I deal with is assisting in information and item recovery to prevent it from falling into the hands of the servants of chaos"

"You do an important service for the imperium Rhonda" Derring said as he cleared his plate

"I don't thinks she's one of these inquisitors you have to kiss up to brother" Calstin said mocking him slightly

Rhonda chuckled.

"Calstin you have a keen eye for reading people!" she said noting she would have to be careful around him or she might give herself away

"Well we should arrive at our location in a couple of days, do you think we should send out any probes as we enter the system? To check for any dangers?" Calstin noted

"Yes that would be wise" Rhonda responded

She didn't know what they might find and it was unlikely the planet had been left unguarded but her hope was what ever systems were active could be by passed by the imperial authorization codes the others had acquired...

**Terra**

Alistravia was going through a host of potential fleet movements and troop redeployment plans with Rogal, most of it was fairly easy to deal with and was already planned and in some cases underway but on other fronts redeployment was proving awkward due to troops being dug in for months on end and ships having to make long journeys that were to the front lines had to be defended but redeployment was necessary to keep up with the movements of the enemy.

It had helped that Alistravia had pulled fleets from sectors that did not need them and she had begun a new recruitment campaign to get more men and women into the guard which was working and so far sign up had increased by thirty six percent across most sectors which allowed new companies and battalions to be formed and relive pressure or those already at war.

She had had a frank conversation with many of the chapter masters and told them their priority's are to defend the people of the imperium and they are not to be used as puppets by the high lords or any one who attempts to use them for operations other than that which combat Abbadon's or other xenos forces.

However forces like the Grey Knights and the Adeptus Sororitas were technically under the umbrella of the ecclesiarchy and while she could politely ask them to put their forces where she wanted them to be it was proving to be an awkward relationship with them and soon things were going to come to ahead but she was preparing for that day and would be ready for it.

Sankara threw the door open as he came in and marched up the two primarchs who were looking over a map of the galaxy and paid him little attention, he was used to this by now because primarchs could be quite ignorant of others when they were talking with each other, whether it was a family thing or just something within their advanced minds that that kept them focused he could not say but he had to cough to draw any real attention from them.

"Mother, my lord, we have a serious problem"

"Is it the fact you might of potentially damaged the door frame when you burst in here?" Alistravia said with some humour in her voice

"No it's this" he said thrusting a data slate in front of her face

She took it and began to read through it, he face changed to one of clear upset and frustration then anger, she handed Rogal the slate and his face didn't change from the usual stone wall but Sankara had known him long enough to notice the small changes in his body language that signalled displeasure

"Alis you and Leaman assured us all information regarding the eleventh had been destroyed!"

"It should have been, it was all sealed up in that room but I can't control the fact no one bothered to go back and make sure it had been completely destroyed, but now we have to decide on what to do about this"

Gigas came into the room about to say something but stopped.

"Sorry mother I did not realise you were in a meeting, I will return later"

"No Gigas we may need you, Rogal" she said nodding to the praetorian who tossed the pad to Gigas

Sankara stayed silent as Gigas read through the whole slate before responding.

"We should send someone to Cyntax and track down any further information about the eleventh and dispose of it!"

Alistravia held her hand up to stop anyone from following that point.

"Let's take this one step at a time, firstly aside from us who else knows about this?"

"No one, I had the memories of the choir purged as soon as the inquisitor on Cyntax had finished his report!" Sankara said

"Perhaps this is fortunate!" Gigas said realizing it sounded happier than it should of

"How so?" Rogal responded

"Koman and the others need something to do, it's why I came to speak with you... they could go to Cyntax!"

"If a ship is already on the way to his home world we have to deal with that first!" Alistravia said

"Some one should still go to Cyntax" Sankara said handing them a slate that contained a pic of a space marine in green and blue caught by a hidden camera in Derring's hab block

Alistravia ran her hands through her hair and fiddled with one of the strands that dangled over her shoulder and thought about the situation as the others spoke.

"Then I will take the team to the planet of storms even though I can't imagine what they hope to find there!" Gigas said

"His coffin!" Sankara Exclaimed "the traitors have been known to make clones and given how the storm lord was before his demise a clone of him would be a potentially dangerous ally even without his legion"

"In that case a primarch must go!" Rogal exclaimed

"Agreed!" Alistravia said before turning to Gigas "Go to Cyntax and flush out the rats... but if you can, get me someone to talk to!" then she turned to Rogal "Take Koman and the team and recover the coffin, you have authorization to do whatever is needed to recover it"

"But Alis I..."

"No Rogal, you want to hide out here and not take command of your legion fine! But your gonna damn well do something useful for me in the mean time now go do your damn job!"

From the prospective of a normal human the situation might of appeared tense and even dangerous but actually the two primarchs were rather calm and neither made any aggressive moves as Rogal quickly nodded in response.

"Yes empress" he said and any tension there might have been quickly dissipated "But where do we take it when we have it?"

"Leave that with me Alistravia said "Just make sure you recover it!"

**Orinoko**

Time had been taken to design a ship for the kill team that would suit most situations they might find themselves in, from massive battles to infiltration of enemy bases a lot of work had gone into designing a new ship which had resulted in the "Orinoko" a prototype corvette with features specifically designed to compliment it's role.

Unlike the standard flat-shark class corvettes the Estrellan's used this was much more purpose built with limited weapons and a reduction in size to help with stealth operations, it's shape had also undergone some modification removing the hammer head style of the flat-shark class and replacing it with an arrow headed hull configuration.

It still held most of the features of the flat-shark however it's weapons had been scaled back in order to improve it's manoeuvrability and because it would be rarely carrying anymore than the six members of the kill team it's deck number had been reduced from twenty to twelve but despite these changes a lot had been added to make the ship more than capable in combat.

It had been fitted with the latest generation of phased plasma and particle weaponry along with several prototype warheads for torpedoes, it kept the mine layer of the flat-shark but it was modified to deploy specialist mines rather than just the standard compliment, shielding of course had to be reduced but thicker armour plates had been installed and the ships cloaking technology was the most advanced in the fleet, combined together with a new class of engine core and an advanced AI it was perfect for a kill team designed to work outside the box.

Koman and the others were transported aboard via a wormhole as the ship only had room for one ship to surface shuttle and a few other vehicles since most of the space was given over to the engine core in the aft section of the ship.

They walked into the briefing room to find Rogal Dorn stood next to a holo image of a male human, once they were all seated around the table the primarch turned and spoke to the AI.

"Ori plot a course to the coordinates I provided and take us into a wormhole"

The ship shot out towards Pluto at such speed several imperial fleets immediately saw it as some form of missile and almost sounded the alarm for the whole solar battle fleet to go on full alert until there auspex picked up it's transponder and registered it as a friendly, the "Orinoko" opened a small wormhole so fast there was barley any time to notice the passage through the event horizon.

"_We are now on route to our destination"_ The AI responded

Rogal nodded and turned to to look at the others.

"This is a classified briefing, I am sure I don't have to tell you not to discuss it outside this room but I will anyway because this is an extremely important mission hence why I am here"

"Does Alistravia feel we need to be babysat on our first mission?" Kinkade responded and Rogal growled

"Alis thinks very highly of all of you and my being here is because this mission may draw one of my traitor brothers attention or worse!"

"What is the mission?" Koman said

Rogal pushed a rune and a planet with a varied biosphere but racked by what looked like large storms appeared hovering above the table.

"This is our destination, the home of the eleventh legion, the planet of storms!"

"Home" Zovak tried to mutter under his breath but found it came out louder than it should have

Everyone looked over to him except Rogal Dorn.

"You were part of the eleventh!?" Maxis exclaimed

"Yes" he responded "I was once a Storm Ranger"

"what happened?" Kinkade asked

"Did Russ really kill your father?" Marklar followed up

"Zovak's past is not part of this briefing"!" Rogal said raising his voice and the group fell quiet and he continued "three days ago on Cyntax a lost slate was found revealing the location of the planet and it would appear as if at least two other factions are in play, Alpha Legion and another unknown entity but we do know that the archivist who recovered the slate has departed the planet with an unknown woman in an inquisitors suit"

The image of the woman and Derring appeared next to the planet.

"I assume she is an Alpha Legion agent?" Kendra asked

"That was our thought as well" Rogal said before continuing "We believe their intent is to recover the coffin of the primarch and take it for themselves or perhaps another legion who may use it for some foul purpose, our objective is to recover the coffin first, however they have a day and a half's head start and Cyntax is closer that we are"

"What if they have already left the planet by the time we reach them?" Koman asked

"Then we are to track them down and recover it!"

"Were there no defences left in case this happened?" Kendra asked

"Some " Rogal Started "But it has been over ten millennia so we can not guarantee their capabilities and I imagine the Alpha Legion will still have obtained the clearance codes or they would not attempt this... there is a full briefing contained within a data slate in all your quarters and Ori can assist with any further requests, otherwise you are dismissed"

Most of the others went to explore the ship or find their quarters but Zovak was concerned about this mission so after stowing his weapons went to find Rogal who was still in the briefing room.

"May I speak with you my Lord"

"I know what your going to say Zovak!" came a quick response

"Then you understand my concerns about being on this mission?"

Rogal nodded.

"Yes and frankly I do not wish to be here either but Alistravia ordered me to come"

"I imagined you objected?"

"Were the situation less critical then yes I would of but there was no one else... and for better or worse she is empress"

"You don't agree with her appointment?" Zovak asked

"I have no problem with my fathers appointment of Alistravia as empress but taking orders from her is a new... experience"

Zovak understood this was the primarchs way of saying "don't ask any further questions" so he bowed and left before heading back to his quarters, this was going to be an uncomfortable home coming...

**Lost System**

The "unearthed redemption emerged from the Mandeville point and immediately came to a full stop. The system was made up of seven plants, two were gas giants circling close to the sun, two others were at the outer edge of the system and were composed of ice and liquid methane lakes, the final three worlds all used to be colonized but now dead city's and forgotten monuments were all that remained.

The ship let loose hundreds of probes across the system whilst on the bridge Rhonda and the others waiting for their signals to return with answers.

"The outer system has no defence systems and there are no signs of any mines" Calstin said as the first signals came back

"we should have visual on the main planet soon but the others look ruined" Melissa continued following her husbands lead

The two planets before the main were burnt to a crisp, dead cities could be seen along with the wreckage of ships that had fallen from orbit, deep impacts from orbital bombardment could be seen but the biggest shock was when the main planet came into view, it's northern hemisphere was covered in a massive storm with what looked like acid rain falling and massive electrical discharges slamming into the ground and yet any cities long since abandoned were still standing but in the south it was mostly clear with some visible plant life.

"there are some defences in place but they appear to of taken some heavy damage from some kind of ionic storm, most are destroyed" Calstin said

"Alright" Rhonda began "Let's take it slow just in case the probes missed anything and then assuming we don't run into any defences we can make our way to the surface"

The ship slowly made it's way through the system with it's auspex at full searching for any hidden defences but none were located and as the approached the main planet the authorization codes were transmitted in case any active satellites still existed.

"I suggest we gather any equipment we need and head to the surface" Rhonda said as an elderly navigator made is way from his alcove towards Calstin

"We shouldn't be her Calstin" he said in a raspy dehydrated voice "I feel the pain of this place, these people died in an unholy fashion!"

Rhonda kept her distance from the navigator because despite the fact she had been trained to hide her thoughts it would only take one wrong word or thought to lead him to suspicion.

"I know Brolan but we shouldn't be here too long right inquisitor?"

Rhonda nodded.

"We will spend as little time on the surface as we can but it is imperative we recover the object in question"

Brolan looked at her and narrowed his eyes before turning back to Calstin.

"when we are ready to leave I must know, the light of the astronomican is weak here and I need to be ready to locate it which could take time"

Calstin nodded and the navigator walked away.

"I suggest we all gather what we need and meet at the shuttle"

"Agreed!" Derring said "I suggest we bring Thwomp along in case we need any heavy lifting done"

"A good thought brother I will tell him to meet us at the shuttle"

"I will go gather my things" Rhonda said

"I shall go grab mine also "Derring said also

Rhonda had gathered very little together, there was an emergency vox device and her las pistol as well as short shot gun she placed in her back pack, she was checking her anti radiation injector when Derring came in with a sack and his stuff.

"I am almost done Derring just making sure I have plenty of water"

"How do I know I can trust you!"

Rhonda stopped and looked over to him.

"You are having second thoughts?"

"No but..."

"Good because once your in your in and the legion frowns on those who break their oaths!"

Derring walked up to her.

"You didn't answer my question, can I trust you!"

"Ask yourself Derring, so far have we lied to you?"

Derring shook his head.

"no I suppose not but how do I know we won't reach your base and kill us all?"

"Because we made a deal!... you still see us as traitors and heretics but the hydra always honours it's deals!" She said as she moved towards the door "Once this is all done you are free to go back to Rhynax and most likely we will never contact you again so you can live out the rest of your life knowing that despite the fact you worked with traitors you saved the imperium"

The shuttle left the docking bay and proceeded into the lower atmosphere, it shook with huge amounts of turbulence and electrical discharges from storms hundreds of miles would still flash past the ship as rain poured down.

Eventually the descended until they were hovering above a massive ruined city near the coast, a large central structure extended up hundreds of stories in the centre of the city and when it had been populated it must of looked incredible but now it was a crumbling ruin where the wildlife had reasserted it's control.

"This is the capitol according the the slate" Derring said "My guess is what were looking for is here somewhere"

"Alright, I will set us down in that park over there but how are we going to find this object?"

"I imagine we will know it when we see it" Rhonda started "This is why we needed archivists, digging up lost things is what your good at"

The shuttle set down in the park and a few animals that were grazing ran off as the engines gave a final discharge, Thwomp stepped out first with his frag cannon and looked around before nodding to the group it was clear as a few birds that were disturbed returned to pecking at the over grown bushes.

"I can't believe there are still Animals" Melissa said with some surprise "I thought they would have been all killed"

"I noticed as we descended some areas were less scarred and the oceans seam intact, perhaps it was left so some life could thrive here again" Derring said looking over to Rhonda

"I imagine what happened here was very different from a traditional exterminatus"

"I realise this might be classified but do you know what this item is exactly... it might help us locate it faster"

Rhonda though for a second and looked at Derring who shrugged.

"Your the inquisitor so if you want to reveal it go ahead, it's your choice"

Rhonda nodded and smiled.

"I am sure I don't need to say you can't repeat what I have told you"

The group nodded.

"We are looking for the coffin of the eleventh primarch, we think the traitors may try to clone him or use his corpse for some other purpose"

"I see, well that does help somewhat... now let's see"

"As a primarch it has to be somewhere grand or important!" Melissa said

Derring rubbed the stubble on his cheeks.

"Not necessary grand Mel, but I would agree it has to be a spot of great importance"

"well we are not going to get anywhere just standing around so lets walk a few streets and see if we can see anything that might give us a clue" Calstin responded

The group started walking down barren streets where some building still stood whilst others were reduced to holes in the ground from what ever hit them, the partial remains of a drop pod could be seen trapped under a bridge that had fallen and a land raider was laying upside down with a huge hole in it's side, skeletons of people who had perished littered some areas where tight seals on doors had prevented decay but mostly the streets were just dust and plant life that had started reclaiming the city.

A few animals moved about the city mostly avoiding the group as they turned down into what appeared to be market district where stalls and shops lined the streets, most of the stalls had collapse and many of the shops had taken some damage but mostly it was a ghost city with no life except for the animals that now called it home.

Mel picked up a book that was partially still intact and looked it over.

"I wonder what kind of culture was here, it looks like Old Terra's 21st century but slightly more advanced"

"I know, I would love to stay here and learn more but I imagine we will not be allowed back?" Calstin responded looking at Rhonda who responded to the question with a simple nod

"I think it best we don't disturb anything, these people are gone so lets show that respect" Derring said

They continued on past the market area and onward towards the coast climbing a steep hill as they went until eventually they came to a raised park between a few buildings that looked down upon the ocean that shone bright blue in the sun as it broke through the storm clouds.

"Beautiful" Rhonda said "Such a shame it came to this for these people"

Mel was picking through a nearby building that was clearly once someone's home, a table that had collapsed with four chairs was in the centre and a kitchen that was covered in plant growth, she looked over a picture of a young family of four smiling by the ocean but it was the one next to it that drew her attention.

"Everyone come look at this!" Mel shouted and the group apart from Thwomp came inside "Look at this picture"

The frame contained a picture of a primarch but his face had been scratched out but stood next to him was another primarch in purple and gold.

"Fulgrim!" Derring exclaimed "and the other one must be the primarch of this world but why is his face etched out?"

"It's the same with this statue" Calstin said from another room

The statue on the mantle piece had had it's head removed.

"Whatever he did it was enough to make his own planets population hate him" Calstin said

Derring sighed.

"Unfortunately this doesn't help us find his coffin"

"If we knew more about the primarch and his legion we might get a sense of where to look" Mel responded

"There must be a cogitator of some sort around here, I will try upstairs" Derring said

"I must remind you all that any information you learn here must not be spoken of once we leave!" Rhonda said sounding official

"Inquisitor we understand this but we can't do our jobs and help you with no information at all" Calstin countered

"I just want you to be careful, we don't know what this primarch did to get such hate from his own population and if is related in some way to the ruinous powers it could be dangerous for you as well"

Melissa nodded.

"we will do our best to limit our exposure"

"Guys I've found something!" Derring shouted from upstairs

They climbed the spiral stair case and found Derring stood over a cogitator of some sort.

"Most of the data is badly corrupted but from what I can gather this legion was known as the "Storm Rangers", they were known for precision strikes that were lightning fast"

"What did the primarch do to warrant execution?" Calstin asked

"I don't know because it looks like this family got off world before this occurred but there's a vague reference to a culling of the weak and some kind of change in the primarchs attitude but that's all I can get the rest I don't even think Cawl himself could restore"

Calstin noticed a picture of a tree with a lighting bolt for the trunk.

"I keep seeing this symbol everywhere, on doors, vehicles and it was painted on the side of the central building"

"I imagine it's there legion icon" Rhonda said

"But why a tree?" Derring asked

"I think I know why!" Melissa said as she starred out of a window

They all came to join her and look at what she was seeing.

Just past the edge of the city was the cliff side over looking the ocean and on a small over hanging ledge was a dark brown tree with no leaves but millions of scorch marks from where lightning had hit it's branches, Derring pulled the data slate out of his bag, flipped it over and held it up next to the tree out on the cliff.

"That's it!" he exclaimed "that's where he's buried!"

Melissa and Calstin nodded in agreement.

"How do you know?" Rhonda asked

"It's simple..." Melissa started to say "Primarchs might be demi gods but they are still human to some degree and as humans we use symbols for everything like your rosette to represent your office or a legions symbol which is often a reflection of the primarch and if that tree is part of the legions symbolism then it stands to reason the primarch would be buried near it"

The group headed back to the shuttle and flew down to the cliff side finding a safe spot to land closer to the tree, they got out and walked up to the rather imposing site.

"How could this tree of survived so many lightning strikes!" Calstin said running a scanner over it

Derring was scanning the ground and picked up on a large object burred deep with in the ground.

"Found it, we should get the excavation equipment and proceed"

"Slowly" Rhonda said as they headed back to the shuttle to get the equipment "We don't know if there are any traps"

"we should set up a servitor to do the majority of the work then, that way if there are any surprises only the machine will die" Melissa said watching the sun rise to it's highest point.

**Cyntax**

The governor of Cyntax had wanted to welcome Gigas personally but he declined saying he wanted to get on with this investigation, first he met the tech-priest who had now opened every sealed door in the catacombs, he was also having all archivists who were working given surprise checks at random intervals as well as forcing them to under go deep level scans of themselves and their equipment.

Gigas was impressed by this as the tech-priest had not waited for him to arrive or to be given orders and Gigas liked it when people worked on their own initiative.

He was now stood with inquisitor Kimmlar in Derring's hab room while a drone scanned it, his size made things awkward at times like in this instance where he had to hunch forward in order to fit inside.

"What are you scanning for with the drone my lord? We have already been through this room multiple times"

"Your scans are not as sensitive as ours" Gigas said as the drone stopped and floated back him to give it's report

It shone a beam of light that projected the results holographically in front of Gigas.

"So that's how they have been hiding" He said rubbing his chin

"Who?" Tobias asked

"The Alpha legion, they cleverly disguised the power signature of their power packs to match that of the signature of the city's power network but they can not hide completely as their power packs signature fluctuates slightly when they are moving"

"Impressive" Tobias said "Can you find them?"

"The drone will" he said as if floated off down the hall "Contact the enforcers, I want a full detachment assembled and ready to strike"

"I will have them assembled within the hour!"

**Cyntax: Alpha Legion base**

Gopal had worked for the legion for a long time, in his prime he had been one of the legions best assets, assassinating governors, generals and sabotaging power plants along with a whole host of other missions but now he was old and time had eventually caught up with him.

He was still useful to the legion of course because he could educate new recruits as well as help in the planning of large scale missions, he had become so useful to this cell in recent years that he had been given an old las pistol from before the heresy as a gift.

Three large knocks came at the door and he moved to open it, he couldn't walk as well as he used to but he still maintained a good pace when needed, another three knocks came.

"These young agents, so impatient" he muttered as he got to the door and slid open the viewing slit

he found he could not see anything until he looked up to see a giant space marine with a large hammer, he went to reach for the alarm but it was too late.

Gigas swung his hammer and smashed open the door sending an older looking man and the door flying back wards as the the enforcers charged forward, one of them was killed by the old man using some old style las pistol but he was shot apart seconds later by another.

The sounds of bolter fire came next and shouts of panic as the enforcers came across the three Alpha legionaries who tore through the enforcers with relative ease but then Gigas stepped in.

He brought his hammer down on the first traitor crushing his skull and the top half of his body, a second slashed at him with a power sword but Gigas kicked him away before using the bolter mounted on top of his power fist to blow the marine apart, the third however saw this, dropped his weapons and knelt down.

His face was that of his primarch although no one in the second had ever met Alpharius so Gigas only had a picture to go by but the resemblance was striking.

"Your going to tell me your Alpharius right?"

The marine said nothing as the enforces came in with flamers.

Gigas charged one of his power fists and used it to shock the Alpha legionnaire in to unconsciousness.

"Take what useful data you can find and then burn the rest to the ground!" he said before dragging the body of the Alpha legionnaire out

**Planet Of Storms**

The servitor had been at it for a couple of hours and it seamed as if the ground was getting tougher the deeper it dug and at one point Derring swore he saw the dirt level going up not down but that might of just been the heat that had washed over the cliff as the sun had risen.

Calstin had flown the shuttle closer so they could take cover in the shade of it's wings and so that they could access it's water recycler rather than relying on the few bottles they had brought with them but it was having very little effect on the sweltering heat.

"It's like the planets trying to force us to leave by making it so hot" Rhonda had commented

Even the Ogryn Thwomp was getting cranky and had started swatting at a few bugs that attempted to land upon his person.

"How much deeper does the servitor have to go?" Melissa asked as she laid in the shade cast by the shuttles hull

Derring steadily walked over to the hole and looked down before scanning.

"It should hit it any moment now"

"Then I suggest we all stay back..." Rhonda began "... might be a trap"

As the servitor continued to excavate the group moved around behind the shuttle and waited, it was quite for a while until a clunk came from where the machine was excavating, they waited a bit longer listening for any kind of explosion or discharge but nothing happened.

They came back round and peered down the hole, a sliver of metal could be seen and Calstin ordered the servitor to clear away the remaining dirt.

"_Task complete master!" _it said before pulling back from the hole

They all looked down once again to see a large silver box with three very ornate gene locks across it's opening, it had etchings and runes all over it's surface and was more than large enough for a primarch.

"I expected something more lavish" Calstin said as they looked down upon it

"We should get it lifted out quickly" Derring stated

Rhonda shook her head in caution.

"we should take it slow"

"You said time was of the essence" Melissa responded

"I did..." Rhonda started to say "...but there could be some kind of pressure trap and the moment we lift it goes off!"

Calstin nodded.

"A fair point inquisitor, I will get the servitor set for lifting and have it pull the coffin out slowly while we take refuge in the shuttle

It took another hour to set the servitor up with the tools needed to lift the coffin out of the hole but by that time the sun had past it's highest point however instead of cooling down the air suddenly became very clammy and a cool wind blew past them.

"A storm is coming" Calstin said as the servitor began to lift the coffin

"We should have enough time" Rhonda responded

The servitor did not struggle to lift the coffin and no traps were set off, Thwomp grabbed the coffin carefully as it reached the top and set it down gently on the trolley to take it into the shuttle and it was at that moment a small sphere detached from the coffin and floated up above them all, they each ran for cover and waited but instead of an explosion it emitted a beam of light and large figure appeared next to the coffin.

The figure was tall and had light coloured long hair and showed teeth bearing fangs, wolf teeth necklaces hung around his massive neck and a wolf skin was draped across his massive shoulders, in his right hand he held a massive sword and in his left an axe that was icy white.

"That's..."

"...Leaman Russ" Derring said finishing his brothers utterance

The holographic figure of the primarch did not look at any of them but after a few moments it spoke.

"_I do not know who you are or what year this is but you have disturbed the resting place of my brother!"_

The image did not move much and it looked as if this was recoded on the planet as for a moment the image of the tree could be seen.

"_You should know my brother committed many crimes against his own people and legion, his end was decided by my father after much debate but still we regret what we did here!"_

"He said we!?" Derring muttered "I thought it was common knowledge Russ killed him alone"

"perhaps that is another piece of lost history" Rhonda said before shushing him as the primarch continued

"_His acts of genocide and mutilation could not be forgiven so it came to this, we buried him here as a modicum of respect and now you disturb this hallowed ground, perhaps you are my sister or one of my brothers and have come to pay your respects or take his body back to Terra or perhaps you are simply people from a time far in the future learning about the past but either way know this... do not under any circumstances open this coffin or you might let the evil it contains out, something dark turned my brother against his own and it may yet wait for another host to turn to corrupt!" _

With that the image shut off and the sphere dropped to the ground.

"That was rather cryptic!" Derring said

"I think this message was recorded long before the emperor revealed his divinity, at that time no one considered what might be lurking in the dark recesses of the warp" Rhonda responded "We should cover the coffin up so when we get back to the ship no one can see what it is, just in case we have any spies aboard"

"we check all our employees inquisitor!" Melissa exclaimed sounding a little offended

"I don't doubt that Melissa but my job is to keep this coffin safe until it's back in the hands of the inquisition!"

Thwomp pushed the trolley with the coffin onto the shuttle and they covered it up with massive tarpaulin sheets making sure to hide it's shape and size as best they could.

As the shuttle lifted off and ascended up through the atmosphere turbulence rocked the small craft shaking it whilst rain poured from the sky and lighting cracked around them.

"It's like the planet doesn't want us to leave" Melissa said as a bolt of lightning hit the ship and sent it off course slightly

"You can get us through this Cal, right?" Derring asked with concern

"Cal nodded and opened up the vox to the "unearthed redemption"

"Get the docking bay open and prepare to leave"

"_Yes sir" _came a quick response

The shuttle was hit by several more bolts and Calstin had to squeeze through a tight opening as the lightning seamed form a barrier around them, bolts shot out and one of the main engines took a massive hit and power began to fluctuate.

Melissa began muttering a small prayer to the emperor and Rhonda hung on to the cargo straps in the back, Derring was strapped into the co-pilots seat and had a face full of terror as the lightning closed in on them.

"Derring!" Calstin yelled over the roar of the storm

"What!?" he responded as he gripped his seat handles tight

"I need to to route all the fuel into the engines for one last burst!"

"That could kill us!" Rhonda shouted from the back

Calstin shrugged in his seat.

"But if we don't try the storm definitely will kill us"

Derring understood the point and let go of his seat to quickly reroute all the fuel, the engine gage hit critical mass and overload alarms sang like a choir warning of the apocalypse.

"HANG ON!" Calstin shouted and the shuttle roared forward

Bolts of lightning seamed to chase the shuttle but the massive burst from the engines was just enough and it broke through the upper atmosphere trailing debris from where the engine caps had blown off during the burst but the craft had enough momentum and fuel left to use it's manoeuvring jets to get them back to the frigate.

**Unearthed Redemption**

As the shuttle landed in the bay with it's engines black from the fuel burn a pair of eyes behind a man's skin watched on, he continued to watch on as the group carefully brought a large object clearly disguised by tarpaulins and push it into the cargo bay area of the ship.

He wanted to rip off this skin and kill everyone in the bay in pursuit of the coffin but that would have been dangerous, not only because the ship likely had a navigator on board who would sense him but the Ogryn with the big gun was a danger as long as he remained in any physical form.

He had to think this through carefully and slowly he followed the group to a private bay where the coffin was rested down and the doors sealed behind them, this skin did have access but would draw suspicion so he needed to find another host but whom would be the best choice he thought as he watched the door to the bay from a distance, the fake inquisitor was the first to leave and that's when it clicked, she would always have access to the coffin.

A warning klaxon shot through the corridors signalling the ship had left anchor over the planet and was heading back towards the mandivile point so soon he would be limited in his power due to the gellar fields blocking out the warps glorious energies so he would not be able to summon others to assist but he could take a new skin.

**Lost System**

The Orinoko exited into the system and on the bridge a hologram of the system was projected and a red tracking run appeared within the system.

"_I am detecting a trader modified Sword class frigate moving towards the mandivile point, it will enter the warp in one minute and ten seconds" _Ori said

"Pursuit course!" Rogal shouted

"_Already plotted and engaged but we can not reach them in time"_

"Torpedoes?" Koman asked

"We would risk hitting them as they entered the warp and if the gate pulled them in we would potentially lose the coffin and the ship forever" Zovak pointed out

Rogal leaned forward and studied the map.

"Tracking torpedo?"

"_That would reach them however we would not be able to locate them until they exit the warp!" _Ori responded

"Better than nothing!" Kinkade said

**Unearthed redemption**

The ship was less than two minutes away from the mandivile point, Calstin was sat on the captains throne and they were all sharing a little celebratory drink.

"Despite the fact we nearly got killed by lightning that was a good trip" Derring said

"Cheers" they all responded

"I am beginning to see why you archivists do this, it's very exciting" Rhonda responded drawing a smile from the group

"Thinking about hanging up the rosette inquisitor?" Melissa teased

Rhonda laughed almost forgetting she was still in character.

"Well if I ever do I might call you looking for a job"

The group laughed as the auspex officer gave a shout.

"Captain a ship has just entered the system"

"That's impossible! we would of seen it come through the mandivile point!" Rhonda exclaimed trying not to show any panic

Calstin pulled up the hologram of the system and the rune indicating another ship had entered close to the main planet but was now moving towards them as incredible speed.

"Could this be those people who attacked Derring!?" Calstin asked Rhonda

"Er..." Rhonda was panicking inside her head, this should have been simple and that ship could be anyone but she had to get them back to the base "...Good chance, we should get into the warp as fast as possible"

"But the transponder says it's a friendly"

"Could be a stolen code!" Derring said and Melissa nodded in acceptance

"Don't panic, that ship is fast but even at that speed we will enter the warp before they catch us" Calstin said

"Torpedo!" came a cry from the auspex officer

The torpedo had shot from the "Orinoko's" main launcher with a speed that defied most conventional munitions, it rocketed towards the "Unearthed Redemption", as it made it's final approach it's warhead opened up and fired a small flat device made from stealth material and as a warp rift opened and the ship was pulled through the gate it attached it's self and the AI inside began to wait for the moment it left the warp and it could transmit their location.

**Unearthed Redemption**

Everyone breathed a shy of relief as the ships sensors confirmed the rift had closed and they were back in the warp sailing to the fake base Rhonda had said was part of the inquisition.

"I wonder why the torpedo didn't hit us?" Derring asked

"Not sure..." Calstin said as she studied the sensor records of the last few seconds before they entered the warp "...maybe it ran out of fuel or the shock wave from the rift opening knocked it off course, either way we are safe now right Rhonda?"

Rhonda nodded and smiled feigning confidence but the truth is she had been scared, she had thought no one from the imperial side knew this mission was happening but clearly that transponder code was from a friendly vessel and whoever they were it was likely they hadn't seen the last of them.

"Yes and we should be definitely safe once we reach the inquisitional base but might I suggest we stay on full alert until then and no one should be allowed access to the bay with the coffin until we reach the base either"

"Sensible idea inquisitor, I will seal the room until we reach the base, shall we go eat... I am starving after all that!"

"Fantastic idea!" Derring said

Melissa was still staring staring at the transponder code of the ship that had pursued them and she glanced over at Rhonda for a moment before Calstin gave her a nudge.

"You alright?"

"yes... yes just wondering who they were" she responded before walking off with the group

**Orinoko**

The mood was rather sullen at the missed opportunity to intercept the ship but the torpedo had attached the tracking device, Ori confirmed it.

"_the device attached eight seconds before the ship entered the warp_

"What are your orders my lord?" Koman asked the primarch

"I am here to get the coffin back, you are in charge of this ship and it's team!" the primarch responded leaving Koman aghast a little

He shook himself out of the stunned stance and analysed the situation before giving orders.

"Ori take us back to the planet, Lord Dorn, myself, Kinkade, Marklar, Maxis and Zovak will head to the surface and see if they found the coffin, Faraq see if you can get anything on that ship from those ruined defences, some of them may of still had intact auspice's and got us a clear ID"

"I will keep an eye on the local sub-sector traffic in case the exit near by" Kendra responded and Koman nodded

He hadn't forgotten about the sniper but she wasn't a tech-marine and she would not be needed on the planets surface but she clearly wanted to make her self useful.

"Ori if that ship reappears..."

"_You will know the instant the tracker begins it's broadcast" _The AI responded

**Planet Of Storms**

For the kill team and primarch the decent had been very smooth and there was no sign of the great storm that had tried to block the shuttle that had left before, they had landed close to the hole where the coffin had once been and Rogal Dorn stood over it with a face of stone as the others stood back.

"Not even the sanctity of death is sacred anymore" he muttered as Kinkade picked up a sphere from the ground

"What's this?"

Rogal turned and looked at the former blood Angel who was turning the device over in his hands, then with a jolt it powered up and floated once again projecting it's rerecorded message.

"Leaman!" Rogal exclaimed as the message began to play out

As the others watched the message Zovak looked back to the city, he had been born there, he remembered they day he left to take the trial to become an astartes, saying goodbye to his mother and father who were now long since passed on, then he felt a twinge as something in the air changed and he looked to the right of where the city was to see a figure in blue approaching.

"My lord!" he shouted as the figure got close and stopped some distance away before another figure dropped from the sky on wings of purple an blue with crimson skin and horns protruding from his helm and armour.

Most of the groups hands dropped towards their weapons but Rogal halted them.

"Stay your weapons" Rogal Dorn said as he walked toward she figures "If he wanted you dead you would already be it"

"My Lord he will kill you" Koman insisted but Rogal turned and shook his head

"He may be our enemy but this is a family matter and we are still brothers... I will be fine"

He strode towards his brother and charge with some speed but remembering to keep some distance because those wings would give his brother mobility he did not have.

Magnus plunged his spear into the ground and strode forward as Rogal did the same with his great chain sword.

They faced each other in silence for several minutes.

"**They have already take it then?"** Magnus said

"I thought you were able to see the future brother, surely you should of seen this" Rogal responded carefully treading the line between making a statement of strength and antagonizing the crimson king

Magnus looked almost upset at this statement, as if this failure was one of many that wounded what remained of his corrupted soul

"**Only the fate weaver himself knows everything... but it would seam in some cases the universe does not abide by the will of anyone"**

For Rogal that was something he could agree on, all that had happened during the heresy was evidence of that.

"Why are you here Magnus? you have the ability to rip that ship from the warp surely so do it and take the coffin for Abbadon's black crusade if you must but I will pursue..."

"**I have no interest in Abbadon's pathetic crusade and I will not give him or anyone that coffin, it must be secured somewhere where no one will ever have access to it again!"** The demon primarch responded

"and where is that?"

"Prospero" The figure of Ahzek Ahriman said

Rogal had not noticed him approach but clearly the sorcerer was keeping some distance at first but had now stepped closer.

"You!... come any closer and I will rip your head from your body"

"This is a parley lord Dorn!" he exclaimed

"With my brother... not with you!"

Rogal was impressed that Ahzek slunk back a few steps and Magnus even glared a warning at him, despite the fact they both had abandoned their senses and turned against the imperium the old relationship between primarch and astartes still existed.

"Why Prospero?" he said turning back to Magnus

"**Sankara convinced Alistravia of an acceptable solution to this problem"**

"and what if Prospero gets rediscovered or one of you..." Rogal said with some venom to indicate his traitor brothers "... goes looking for it"

"We are not burying the Coffin" Ahzek said thinking he was far enough back to avoid any retaliation

With a right hook Rogal smashed the sorcerer across his face sending him sprawling, he flipped over with some warp power beginning to emanate from his body but Magnus stepped between the two.

"**Both of you stop... we have bigger problems to deal with and all you are concerned about is killing each other!"**

"He attacked me!" Ahzek exclaimed

"I warned you to keep your distance" Rogal said glaring at him

Magnus looked at his son and growled.

"**remember your place Ahzek!"**

"Of course" he responded reluctantly although Rogal could sense some tension between the two

There was quiet for a while as some of the tension died down and Ahzek retreated further away

"If your not burying it what are you doing"

"**The library we each hold a key to, myself Sankara and Ahzek, it will be safe in there so once you have the coffin meet us on Prospero... be careful as I sense something Dark is with them"** he said before pulling his spear back to his hands and flapping his wings as if readying for take off

"Magnus assist me in it's recovery and you might somewhat redeem your name in the eyes of your brothers"

"**I tried to help once before and I was punished so I think it best you do this alone"** he said turning around and walking a few feet away before turning back to look at Rogal one more time **"It was good to see again old friend"**

Then with a might flap of his great wings the demon primarch of Tzeentch shot into the sky as Ahzek Ahriman opened a gate on the ground and exited the field.

Rogal walked back to the group.

"We will meet Magnus on Prospero, he Sankara and Ahzek will take the coffin beyond the reach of anyone else"

"How do we know we can trust him not to betray us?" Marklar asked his gene sire

"Magnus could rip that ship from the warp and take the coffin in a single breath but he is allowing me to pursue and reclaim it knowing I could just as easily place it in the vaults on Terra sounded by blanks"

"So what now?" Maxis asked

"Let's get back to the ship" Koman responded "We need to wait for it to exit the warp then we can go after it"

Rogal Dorn and the others nodded their agreement and they headed back to the shuttle.

**Unearthed Redemption**

Melissa entered her husbands office and he smiled at her as she walked up to his desk where he was organizing a few data slates, it had been six hours since they entered the warp but ever since the other ship had appeared in the lost system things had been nagging her but Calstin had been either busy catching up with his brother or Tandy was with them and she couldn't talk freely but now she had chance.

"hey... something wrong... oh my emperor your pregnant again!" he said jokingly

Melissa laughed coyly and shook her head.

"do you recognise these?" she asked as she handed him a data slate

The slates contained five transponder codes.

"Yes, these are transponder codes of the 2nd legion corvette squadron that passed through the Rhynax system a few months back"

Melissa nodded and then handed him a data slate with another code on it.

"This is the one we recorded from that ship that entered the lost system, notice anything?"

Calstin's eyes darted back and forth and she knew her husband well enough to see he had picked up on it straight away.

"They have the same thematic make-up... but why would a second legion ship be in that system and why would they fire on us?"

"Well that's the thing, I checked the auspex recoding right down to the most minute scans and that torpedo had no explosive warhead but something did detach from it then disappear moments before we entered the warp" Melissa said in response

Calstin leant back in his chair and studied the information.

"Derring thought the transponder code could have been stolen?" Calstin mused but he was clearly unconvinced

"That ship also didn't come through the mandivile point and we know 2nd legion ships can wormhole into any point in a system without obstruction..." Melissa stated

Calstin took a deep breath and held his hands together in thought.

"You think something isn't right about this?" it was clear Calstin was suspect about things but was waiting for his wife to say it

"Nothing is right about this!" she exclaimed before starting to pace about "Something seamed fishy from the beginning, even you said it Cal. Why not send a full inquisitional fleet? Why only one inquisitor and did you see her face when that ship appeared, she was frightened...and I certainly don't buy this story about Derring handing in this slate then being assaulted by cultists"

Calstin nodded, stood up and leaned forward on his desk.

"I know, why assault him if he handed the slate in or at all, plus there's that bruising on his neck that looks like something was wrapped around it... do you think... do you think the inquisition tortured him into coming to us?"

"I wouldn't put it past them... if she's even an inquisitor at all"

Calstin looked at her with some surprise at that last comment.

"That's a dangerous accusation and she has her rosette but... something isn't sitting right with me either"

"So what do we do?" Melissa asked

Calstin took a breath and walked round the desk to where his wife stood.

"Well we have no actual evidence but I suggest we make preparations for any kind of betrayal" Calstin thought for a minute "I don't feel like she has any malicious intent towards us so lets follow along until we have something concrete but I will send a note around the security teams to keep an eye on her"

Tandy was bored, her toys no longer entertained her and she wanted to see the inquisitor again but her mother and father had gone down to some planet and they had all been so busy upon their return and due to something they had brought back from the surface she had not been able to see the inquisitor again so finally she decided to sneak out.

She had done this before when she learned she was small enough to fit into the maintenance shafts that ran through out the ship although she had never ventured outside the upper decks because it scared her to go further, plus her mother had warned her against playing in the tunnels.

Slowly she removed the tunnels covering that was behind a large stuffed teddy as she had done before, she had learned how to undo the bolts from watching her father fix a tunnel cover in another room after they had hit a warp storm and some of the power conduits had blown during the transition back to real space.

Inside the tunnel it smelt of oil and metal as well as burning incense from the scented prayer stamps on the pipes and other machines which hissed, hummed and sometimes sparked as she passed, the first time she had entered the tunnels she had gotten scared and for weeks dare not venture back in until she realised she could make the entrance behind the tunnel cover into a little den and explore through it and always go back there if she got scared.

Over the months she had learned what rooms were where and the quickest paths to them, one time she had passed the her mother and fathers room and heard her mother moaning and shouting out to the god emperor along with grunts from her father, she would of looked but the tunnel cover in their room was noticeable so they would of seen her.

The inquisitors room was not far from her own and just next to her uncle Derring's who she thought was amazing and brave just like her father, she had to crawl under a low steam pipe to get to the room but she managed it just fine before continuing on.

"Mr Squeak" and his wife were eating some left overs she had left them yesterday, they had become like pets for her and she often saved some of her food for them so they could feed themselves and their babies, the rat glared at her with red eyes for a moment before going back to it's meal.

She finally reached the tunnel cover that led into the inquisitors room and she carefully opened it, it had taken her a few months to learn how do open the tunnel covers from inside but it was now second nature and she pushed open the cover carefully as she listened for signs of life, Sadly no one was here so she came out of the tunnel and looked around.

The bedroom she had come out into was small and basic as most of the guest rooms were but their was a bag on the floor and she opened it up to see what interesting things the inquisitor had, maybe she would find a picture of a Tyranid or some secret code but there was nothing but a few clothes and a small gun.

She knew the gun was dangerous so she carefully lifted it out of the bag and put it on the bed before routing through the rest of it's contents, the clothes were basic and she searched under them but found nothing but some underwear, she was about to move on from the bag until her fingers pulled on the bottom of the bag and found it lifted up.

Underneath was a circle of metal with some kind of three headed snake pictured on it.

"_It's a Tyranid!"_ she whispered to herself in excitement before pocketing it

She explored the rest of the room but apart from the gun and a couple of data slates she couldn't access it was boring and she got a little upset as she had expected more interesting items, she looked at the chronometer on the wall and realised it was almost time for tea so she went back into the tunnel and resealed the cover before making her way back past "Mr Squeak" and his family and to her room, she would show the picture of the Tyranid to her father later and say the inquisitor gave it to her...

Rhonda entered her room about twenty minutes later and was surprised to find her shotgun on the bed, she could not remember removing it from her bag but thought she must of or it wouldn't be there.

She pulled one of the pads from the side and accessed it to refresh her mind on the last part of the mission, ships marked with the flag of the inquisition would be signalled when she arrived at the base with the coffin, then it was a simple matter of them picking it up and she could breathe a shy of relief or at least that's what she hoped only the mission had gone smooth enough until that ship showed up in the lost system and they had fired something which she suspected to be a tracking weapon although she had no idea whether the torpedo had been successful in deploying it's tracker.

She would have to warn the legion ships about this potential threat but as long as things remained on schedule everything would work out and she could go back to Cyntax reporting a job complete.

A knock came at her door and she opened it to a burley looking man who smiled at her.

"Can I help you?" she asked

"My names Viktor, we found one of the men badly mutilated by something and there scared it's a demon" he said although there something off putting about him Rhonda couldn't quite put her finger on

"The gellar fields are up and at full strength so nothing will get in!" she exclaimed

"Aye miss I know..." he started to say apologetically "... but the lads are starting to worry and am afraid it will affect the ships morale"

"Well you can tell them I said it's fine, nothing can get in!" she said insistently hoping to get rid of him

"I know miss but..."

"But what?"

His eyes seamed to be staring right through her and she felt unnerved by the man but couldn't explain why.

"Could you just come and look at his body, it's probably some wild canid the lads tried to keep as a pet and don't want to admit to it so there blaming demons but if you can just come and say it's not so we can get back to work"

The man bowed his head in apology and Rhonda studied for a second, Inquisitors did do this on occasion when demonic attacks were suspected so she nodded and followed the big man down a few corridors and stopped when he turned away from the sick bay.

"We didn't move the body miss... just in case"

This annoyed Rhonda but she had to play the role until she was back home.

"Fine!" she said

As they descended deeper into the ship past a few of the gun decks and along towards the inner sections she tried asking some questions to sound more inquisitorial.

"did anyone hear anything?"

"no miss, we just found him and there is no pic recorders down in that section" Viktor replied

"did he have any enemies? Anyone he owed money to?"

Viktor shook his head as he responded.

"Ah no Gerin was a good lad miss, wouldn't hurt a fly and never gambled"

Eventually she found her self in a dark space with flickering lights, a body lay against the wall and it did look as if an animal had taken a few bites out of the poor crewman, she kept examining and spoke as she did.

"well it certainly looks like it was done by a canid or some animal"

Viktor was quiet and said nothing as she noticed the man's polo neck shirt and the red mark next to it, she rolled the neck part down and saw the same red bruising she had seen around Derring's next.

She stood up and turned but as she did a large fist flew into her face knocking her over, she rolled away as a boot came down and pulled a knife from behind her waist, she drove it into Viktor's side but he just laughed and pulled the blade out let a purple steam of blood leak out.

"You!" she said and then another fist drove it's self into her chest and she fell to the ground

A last fist knocked her clean out, when she came too she was stripped naked and was dangling from the ceiling with her arms shacked above with tight chains.

Viktor or what was wearing Viktor's skin stepped forward with a blow torch and ignited it.

"_I hope you will tell me what I want to know quickly as I can't afford to do much too much damage to your skin as I need it!" _a voice from behind Viktor's lifeless lips hissed

"I've been trained to resist torture!" Rhonda said defiantly

"_Well let's see if that training paid off" _Viktor hissed before sparking the blow torch into life and approaching

Rhonda's screams could not be heard, Viktor had made sure it was a spot where nothing would disturb them...

A few hours later and Rhonda was bloodied and burnt but the demon had made sure to target areas that would not be visible to others, at least until her flesh had out lived it's usefulness and sadly this had included her genitals which the monster had been focusing on for the past hour.

Her screams had filled the chamber but she had repressed to urge to say anything, not that it would matter if she did as her death was already assured but the creature had asked her for the codes to access the bay where the coffin was and thankfully she did not know those codes as Calstin had sealed up the room after she had left.

The demon had stopped using just the blow torch and had begun using the knife she had stabbed it with then after wards burning her with the blow torch to seal the wound but it had worn her down slowly and her mental conditioning was wearing thin.

In the training they had subjected her to extreme mental pressure and torture for a few days to build up her resolve but it had not prepared her for this and the demon had known exactly where to cut and burn her and as it had done so the flesh of the crewman had fallen away and now it was fully visible in all it's horror.

It was tall and walked upright like a human but the legs bent like a beast as they moved, it had a long thin bony tail with a blade at the end, it's chest was made up fleshy armoured plates with gaping set of jaws in the middle and the head was nothing but a big bulbous eyes that reflected the bright spark of the blow torch, it's two arms were as bony as it's tail and between the cutting and burning it caressed her like some lover with them as if a perverse pleasure was derived from seeing it's victim slowly break and die, it reminded her of the Drukhari tales other agents had told her yet this thing was no Eldar raider and she had been surprised at how well such a large creature could hide in the flesh of small beings.

It rubbed it's hands across her breasts trailing slime and bile as it caressed her face.

"_Ssssuch a figure, a ssshame I may have to discard this body so quickly, if I had more time I would do to you what I did to that girl so many years ago, she felt pleasure and pain as one before ssshe died and I took her ssskin!"_

She ran the knife across her belly and Rhonda screamed as best she could given her throat was so dry, then the burning came and she finally broke down in tears.

"Please..." she begged "just kill me"

"_tell me how to get into the bay with the coffin"_

"I don't have the codes... it's Calstin" she said trying to get it all out in one go as every word caused her more pain

"_Then I will take them from him" _it said licking it's lips

A siren sounded throughout the ship and the creature banged it's fist against a wall in frustration knowing the siren signalled the exit from the warp, it loomed over and began to peel her flesh starting with her feet and working it's way upward, the shock was too much for her to scream and the last thing she saw before she died was the creature trying her own face on...

**Orinoko**

"So we're working with traitors now!?" Kendra said after the encounter with Magnus on the surface was explained

"Temporarily!" Rogal responded "Sankara's plan is sound, we trap the coffin in the library only he Ahzek and Magnus can enter and only when all three of them are together so whom ever it is who is seeking my brothers body will not ever have opportunity to claim it"

"How do we know the despoiler himself will not try to claim the coffin?" Marklar asked

"You think Abbadon would really challenge a primarch of Magnus's power!?" Maxis said

Koman coughed to clear the air and get everyone's attention.

"I think we are getting a little distracted and need to stay focused!... Faraq did you get anything from the satellites?"

The former Iron hand nodded and a holoimage of the ship that had taken the coffin appeared.

"Records identify it as the "Unearthed Redemption", an archivist ship registered to the Algor family who are fairly well known in the local sub sector... I have sent the information on to all local fleets and advised them to stop them but not to destroy the ship!"

"I have already contacted the local Arbites and send someone to the family home as well go through the accounts looking for anything that might lead us to them, they do have several digs in progress but they are quite a distance away and I cannot see them travelling too far with their prize" Kendra added

Koman nodded.

"good work, Ori is there any sign of that signal yet"

The AI phased into being near them.

"_I have just received a signal from the tracking drone and we are also receiving a vox hail from a vice admiral Kieran Mac in the Platores system where the signal is emanating from"_

"Put him through..." Rogal said "... but remember I am not here" he said stepping away from the table and into a dark corner

The image of a middle aged man with an arm made of steel appeared in the imager, he had a small moustache and bowed before Koman and the others.

"My lords, we have located the ship I believe you are pursuing and are following it's tracking signal"

"Where is it heading Vice Admiral?" Faraq asked

"At the other end of this system there is a small dwarf planet, it would appear their course is taking them directly to it but there are no recorded settlements or bases there... shall I pursue?"

Koman looked over to the corner and saw Rogal nod his agreement.

"Yes but do not engage until they are in anchor around the planet or they may try to run!"

The admirals image bowed again.

"If it comes to it I will disable the vessels engines and await your arrival but what if they have a fleet awaiting them?"

"Use your own judgement Vice Admiral but that ship must not be allowed to leave this sector, nor must any another ship be allowed to leave that planet!" Koman stated firmly

"Very good my lord, I will not fail you"

With that the vox link cut and Ori reappeared.

"_I have a course plotted already and will engage on your command"_

"Do it!" Koman said and instantly the ship began to move

Faraq gave his captain a strange look as the others filed out.

"what is it?" Koman asked

"I feel uncomfortable with the AI, it controls everything!"

Ori suddenly reappeared.

"_Manual control is available but I was designed to act support on your missions so the entire team could be on the ground and I can act as... backup"_

"See he is always watching!" Faraq said

"_If you are concerned that I could turn against you then you are mistaken, I am governed by three tenants that guide my actions... the first is that..."_

Koman held a hand up to stop Ori.

"Faraq Ori is a tool and is part of this ship, without him we will not be able to preform our tasks... or do you wish to be removed from this team?"

"Of course not! but you can't blame me for being concerned"

"_Of course not... Estrella's main AI, EST, moved the planet away from the core systems when the men of iron began their uprising to protect it's self and the Estrellan people knowing how dangerous the rouge AI was"_

Faraq was quite bemused by the AI's response.

"Estrella existed before the men of iron revolted?"

"_Yes, if you like I can give you a complete run down of the history from the birth of the Estrellan's generation ship right up until the legions founding... It started with a small group of scientists and engineers..."_

"As much as I would also like to hear this history lesson we have work to do!" Koman exclaimed

"_another time then" _The AI responded

"Besides" Koman said watching Zovak pass by "there is another piece of history I would like to know about first"

**Sub-sector Patrol Fleet: Daedalus**

Patrol fleet Daedalus was keeping it's distance from it's prey as it moved along the same navigational lines as the "unearthed Redemption", sixteen ships, made up mostly of medium cruisers, had dropped their power output to lower their chances of detection as they shadowed the modified sword class frigate.

"Sir" a junior officer said approaching the Vice Admiral "I have double checked the cogitator memory banks, there are definitely no recorded settlements or bases this far out"

"Very good, carry on" Kieran responded

The little frigate was approaching the planet and slowing down in preparation to enter orbit.

"Come to all stop just outside their sensor range once they enter orbit, once we are sure they won't be moving again we will disable the ship"

**Unearthed Redemption**

Calstin had entered his room and begun putting some stuff together, he pulled an old revolver out of a locked case and slipped it into a small compartment inside his jacket, the inquisitor had asked them all to come down to the surface with her so they could sign some documents but what he had found odd was that she had disappeared for a few hours during warp transit and her explanation of being fast asleep was unconvincing so now more than ever Calstin suspected something was going on and he wanted to be prepared.

The door opened behind him and Tandy appeared.

"Hi Daddy!"

"Hello honey, you look happy" he said smiling at his little girl

"the inquisitor gave me a present!" sh said beaming a smile and pulling a small disk from her pocket

"Oh let me see what... this...is..." Calstin looked at the picture of the three headed hydra and frowned "When did she give you this"

"Yesterday... It's a Tyranid!"

Calstin shook his head.

"No honey it's not and you must never tell anyone you had this ok?"

"But why?" Tandy said sounding both upset and puzzled

"Because this is dangerous and people might think your a bad person, I am sure the inquisitor" he said through frustration "will understand if I give her it back but I don't want you to see her anymore ok?"

"Why?"

Calstin thought of a quick excuse and one that would easily satisfy a little girl.

"She's on an important mission and needs to concentrate"

"Ok" Tandy said with some disappointment

Calstin would be making sure that Rhonda was never anywhere near his daughter again and with this new information he had good reason to throw her off his ship.

He made his way to the docking bay where Thwomp was just pushing the coffin on to the shuttle, the so called inquisitor was watching and looked to be drooling some what.

"Thwomp bring the coffin down from the shuttle"

"Calstin?" Derring queried

Rhonda looked him up and down then stood in front of the Ogryn.

"The coffin is coming down to the planet with me and so are you all!"

The orders it had taken from the real Rhonda wanted them down on the surface to sign something that would look inquisitional but were faked to give the illusion of bureaucracy but it wanted the people down their as sacrifices.

Melissa was stood by the shuttle and gave him an odd look as if to say "what's going on"

"Your not really a member of the inquisition!" he said throwing the disc with the image of the hydra between them

It starred at the disc for a long while as it gained accusing stares, then with a flash it grabbed the man's wife and held a gun to her head, security guards moved for there guns but Calstin held his hand up to stop them.

"Everyone who I said is coming with me is coming with me... you Ogryn... put the coffin in the back and sit down, the rest of you get inside"

Thwomp threw Calstin a look and he just nodded, in order to save his wife he had to play along a little until he got a clear shot, he made his way aboard the shuttle and took the pilots seat.

"Take us down to the surface and don't try anything stupid"

**Patrol fleet Daedalus**

"Sir a shuttle is departing the frigate" the auspex officer noticed

"Excellent, once they have landed we will jam the ships comms, prepare a boarding party to take the bridge then we will inform lord Koman of our success"

**Dwarf Planet: Alpha Legion Base**

The shuttle landed on an outer pad and a small security team lined up, their commander approached Rhonda as they stepped down from the ramp with the coffin being pushed by Thwomp.

"Greetings inquisitor" the lieutenant said unaware they knew this was not an inquisition base "We have notified the fleet of your arrival and have a room in the back prepared for you to store your artefact whilst we wait"

"Thank you, I would prefer not to be disturbed until the fleet arrives" it said knowing it would not have long to open the coffin

It's plan was relatively simple now, trick the Alpha legion ships into picking her and the coffin up and then disable their gellar fields once in transit and summon it's comrades to take the ship and the coffin so they could restore their master and unleash him onto the galaxy.

It kept Melissa close knowing the husband wanted her back but once they were sealed in this private room it would have it's fun.

They were escorted past a few Valkyries and guardsmen as they made there way through the facility and into a small room with a table where Thwomp set the coffin down, Rhonda caressed it like you would a lover and let go of Melissa.

"Derring did you know she was Alpha legion!?" Calstin asked as the doors sealed behind them and began to reach inside his jacket while Rhonda was occupied

"I am sorry brother they said it was for the good of the imperium, they just wanted to prevent it falling into dangerous hands!"

"Nothing is more dangerous than a traitor brother!" Calstin hissed

"_Of which I am not" _a voice that sounded inhuman came from Rhonda as she stood up right and licked her lips

Calstin did not give her a chance to react and shot her straight through the head, Melissa ran to his side and hugged him tight.

"I'll get the door open" Derring said ripping off a panel and fiddling with some of the wiring

Then came the sound of flesh tearing as something was ripped apart from the inside out, from behind the coffin from where Rhonda's body had fallen a creature of nightmares rose up and starred at them with it's big bulbous eyes.

"_Sssacrifices" _it hissed as the door began to open slightly

"Derring work faster!" Calstin said as he fired a few shots at the monster

The bullets did nothing but dent the creatures flesh and it laughed a sickening wet laugh that made their flesh crawl.

"_you do not have the power to kill me!" _it said stepping towards them as the door opened enough and Calstin pushed Melissa towards it

"Go I will be right behind you!" he said as Derring ushered Melissa through the gap

"Brother you go, I will stay... this is my fault"

"your Damn right it is! but we are all getting out of this now go!" he said and Derring ducked through the gap as the creature took another step towards Calstin

Calstin took aim at pressurised canister on the wall and was about to shoot when a mass of muscle tackled the monster and shoved it against a wall.

The thing hissed and clawed at Thwomp who turned his head and simply said.

"Run Boss!"

Calstin needed no further instruction, his long time Ogryn worker was sacrificing it's self, he hit the fire alarm on the way out and jumped through the gap in the doors before they shut, Derring and Melissa were hiding behind a stack of crates and he ran to them.

"Thwomp distracted it now we just need to get past these guards"

"Is that why you pulled the fire alarm!?" Derring asked

"yes it should hopefully draw enough of them away so we can get back to the shuttle" Calstin said

"What was that thing in Rhonda's skin!?" Melissa asked

Derring sighed.

"that's what attacked me on Cyntax!" it must of followed us but how it got to Rhonda I don't know!"

"Doesn't matter now, let's just get back to the ship and leave!"

They carefully waited as most of the guards came running past as they made there way up towards the landing pad, two guards stood near by and Calstin casually walked up to them.

"Your inquisitor has given us permission to depart"

The two guards looked at each other and then back to Calstin before laughing.

"No sir we were told you had to wait until the fleet arrived and until we hear different I am afraid you will have to wait here!" one of them said

Back in the secure room Thwomp was losing his grip due to the overwhelming strength of the creature, eventually he felt something slice across his throat and looked down as his vision faded to see the bladed tail of the monster.

The body of the Ogryn dropped and it was about to return to breaking open the coffin when the doors opened and stood their were about twenty of the base's guards who took too long in their panic to draw their weapons to prevent it getting among them.

It sliced, clawed and bit it's way through the mass of bodies, a few managed to get some las guns aimed and open fire but it's thick armoured hide was not going to suffer small arms fire and it ripped the humans to pieces and with it's identity revealed it would have to kill everyone in the base.

By the landing pad a scream was echoed and the guards looked at each other before attempting to vox someone on the radio but all they received back was static or screams, a thud from further down the corridor made them step forward and forget about Calstin and the others who slowly edged to the door to the pad.

Another loud scream made the guards look at each other and turn around hoping to catch a ride with the three people waiting to board their shuttle but they had already boarded and sealed the doors behind them.

**Orinoko**

Zovak walked onto the bridge reading a data slate, he was about to say something when he noticed all eyes upon him except Rogal Dorn's who simply sat on the command throne starring at the view screen in front showing the inside of the wormhole as they travelled.

"Zovak..." Koman started "...What happened to your father, why was he executed?"

Zovak tossed the pad on a near by console.

"Ask Lord Dorn, he would know more and besides it is a legion matter"

"Your legion no longer exists!" Faraq said

Zovak looked around at the group who were all waiting for some response from him.

"you are asking me to reveal classified information!"

Koman stepped towards him and nodded.

"I understand that but everyone here has a past, it used to be only I would hear of that but since forming this kill team we have agreed to share it with everyone, I am not ordering you to tell us but we would appreciate knowing considering the mission"

Zovak looked to Rogal Dorn.

"My Lord what do you think?"

"I think it is your story to tell and not mine... do as you see fit" Came the response from the primarch whose gaze was still fixed on the view screen

"Very well then, I suppose it's fair that you know what happened"

Koman took a seat near by whilst the others leaned forward in anticipation.

"I assume you all know of the Rangdan Xenocides?"

Everyone nodded.

"The war had been going on for many years... we were stretched to limit, ourselves, the second and the imperial navy and guard that were with us but finally the twelfth finished their campaign close by and Angron himself along with most of his legion arrived to assist us, without him the Rangdan would of succeeded in their ambush on Alistravia..."

Zovak took one of the empty seats and leaned forward before continuing his tale.

"...with the twelfth now supporting us and the promise of other legions coming to assist we redoubled our efforts and finally we broke through the enemy's outer systems and got into their core worlds, Angron might be filled with rage but when he and his legion are given a task they do not disappoint so my father suggested he split off and attack systems at random to keep the Rangdan fleet guessing and it worked a charm..."

Zovak lent back in his seat a little.

"... The Rangdan's main fleet pursued Angron leaving the rest of their systems undefended and we took them one by one but the Rangdan had a knack for building ships fast and even though they were now losing the war we struggled with the constant new fleets they sent out so the second and ourselves assembled a fleet and began an assault on their largest ship yards with thousands of ships, our aim was to cripple their production and we did just that...at the time I was commanding a ship known as the "lightning seed..."

**Zebus Nebula: Century Unknown**

The Largest ship structure broke apart under brutal attack of the imperial fleets guns as massive claw shaped Rangdan cruisers attempted to slow them down with everything they had but the battle was already over.

Most of the defending Rangdan fleet was burning and the imperial fleet was chasing down any escape pods or shuttles that tried to flee.

Zovak watched from his command throne as his forward guns finished off a Rangdan frigate.

"My Lord" the human officer started as he approached him "Ninety eight percent of the Randan ship yards are destroyed and most of their fleet is dead, your father has sent a message asking all ships to reassume formation with the main fleet and..."

A siren sounded through the bridge and everyone looked round, the auspex officer was looking at his screen in alarm.

"My Lord, enemy reinforcements, at least a thousand ships"

"Impossible!" Zovak Exclaimed

**Orinoko**

"What we did not realises is that long before Angron joined the war the Rangdan had been assembling a fleet with the intention of striking deep into imperial territory but in their time of need they chose to unleash it on us"

"But they only had a thousand ships, you said you had assembled a fleet of thousands... it should have been an easy victory" Kinkade exclaimed

Zovak shook his head.

"You don't understand these ships were not designed to fight other vessels, the Rangdan were losing the war and had intended to make a statement, which they did..."

**Zebus Nebula: Century Unknown**

"Your father is telling the fleet to attack" the Vox officer said as he relayed the orders

"Ours status?" Zovak said looking to the tech-priests

"_We have taken minor damage to the outer hull, we would recommend keeping some distance"_

Zovak nodded his appreciation of their assessment.

"Take us in but slowly, we will provide support for the front line and..."

Then there was a blast as one of the Rangdan ships charged into an imperial cruiser, the explosion was like a star going nova and hundreds of ships were consumed in the attack as other Rangdan vessels surged forward.

"What's happening!?" Zovak yelled over the sirens

"the ships looked to be loaded with explosives my Lord, we are getting orders to pull back..."

**Orinoko**

"We lost almost a thousand ships in the first few minutes, it was chaos as we desperately tried to get far away from the Rangdan vessels"

"If those ships had reached imperial territory they would of killed billions by crashing into a planets surface... and if one had made it to Terra..." Maxis said

Zovak nodded in understanding.

"So what happened next" Kinkade asked

Zovak smiled.

"The great thing about having a technologically advanced legion as your ally is that they always think outside of the box..."

**Zebus Nebula: Century Unknown**

"They want us to what!" Zovak exclaimed as the order came through

"Shunt all our power to shields and polarise them with ion particles" the officer responded

"To do what!?"

"_The Lady Alistravia plans to use the shields of each ship to create a wall of ionic interference, this has been known to disrupt Rangdan vessels" _one of the tech-adepts said

"Then do It!" Zovak shouted

As quickly as the Rangdan had begun their assault it began to falter as every imperial and legion ship began modifying their shields, Rangdan vessels had their engines short out as they hit the wall of ionic particles.

Zovak smiled and would love to of seen the frustration on the faces of the Rangdan right now as most of their ships halted.

"New orders, all ships are to destroy as many enemy vessels as they can then head towards the mandivile point"

"Destroy the ships closest us then plot a course to meet with with the main fleet"

Only two ships were in range of the "Lightning Seed" and she unleashed all her fury from a safe distance destroying them both before turning and head back towards the main fleet passing the Storm Lords command ship as it turned towards the same goal, then an alert siren sounded.

"A large ship has broken through the ionic interference... it is on a direct course for the "Ahab's Rage"

Alistravia's command ship had taken some damage in the early stages of the attack on the ship yards and had been undergoing repairs at the rear from a repair frigate but it was clearly still wounded and was struggling to turn towards the forming wormhole but the Storm Lords command ship was already moving and unleashing it's guns on to the enemy ship whilst a few smaller vessels targeted it's engines.

"Can we get to them in time?"

"we are too far away now but it looks as if your father has been successful my Lord"

The Rangdan vessel had lost it's momentum and faltered as it was hit by the guns of the legions ships, the "Ahab's Rage had made it to the wormhole edge and was waiting for the last few ships to pass through.

Zovak breathed a shy of relief, this was the second time the Rangdan had targeted the water maiden for assassination but both times failed to achieve it, the storm lords ship was moving away but then as the Rangdan ship died it fired one last torpedo and as the the storm lords command ship began to enter the Immaterium it hit, the explosion sent the ship spinning and flung it into the Immaterium with no shields and before they could activate their gellar fields.

Panic shot across the eleventh legion and several ships tried to enter the same opening but it sealed far too quickly, Zovak dropped to his knees as the human officer approached.

"My lord more Rangdan ships are breaking through the interference, we must leave before we are destroyed"

Zovak looked up at the view screen and clenched his fist, he wanted to avenge his father and brothers but he could not risk this ship and it's crew simply for him, there was a chance he was still alive.

"get us out of here and back to the rendezvous point"

**Orinoko**

No one spoke and Rogal's gaze had not moved from the screen.

"When we arrived at the rendezvous point we found two more legions had arrived, the Luna Wolves and the space wolves... Horus Vowed to have his psyker's search the warp day and night to try and find my father but in truth he spent most of his time with Alistravia..."

"She saw it all so imagine she needed some consoling" Kendra said

Zovak chuckled.

"Maybe it was for that reason, but their were rumours that..."

"Utter one more word and I rip your head from it's body!" Rogal boomed

"what happened after that?" Koman asked before anyone could ask a follow up question

Zovak sighed.

"The war was won not long after that, with their main ships yards gone and Angron keeping the main fleet occupied a much larger invasion began and when Alistravia unleashed her super weapon on their home world there was nothing left for the Rangdan and they were hunted down little by little, two years after the end of the way my father re-emerged..."

"I am guessing from your tone that it wasn't a celebration?" Faraq asked

Zovak shook his head.

"At first we celebrated but then we realised he had changed, he began making drastic changes to the legion and even killed an envoy of the Night Lords calling him weak and pathetic, Curze was extremely angry but it wasn't just his envoy that suffered because the emperors own liaison was killed... then came the culling, thousands of marines killed along with billions of civilians, well the lucky ones died others were subjected to horrific surgeries turning them into monstrous abominations"

"You witnessed some of this?" Marklar, who had been silent so far, asked

"No, I was with a garrison very far away on my fathers orders... when he then ordered us to cull the population and our brothers we refused and fed to the safety of Terra, other refuges had been found fleeing from my father so a plan was concocted to bring him to justice... the Second and seventh legion were sent to bring him in but when more evidence of what my father had been doing reached the emperor he decided to have him executed rather than risk him infecting the rest of the imperium"

Quiet filled the bridge for a while as the ship sped through the wormhole, eventually Rogal spoke.

"Like Horus the Storm Lord was once a good man, this should have been warning enough for us but in our hubris we sealed away all information and those who forget history are doomed to repeat it"

Ori appeared.

"_Forgive my interruption, but we will exit the wormhole in two minutes"_

Rogal rose from the command throne and cast his gaze over them all.

"Gear up, I doubt the Alpha Legion will be far behind"

**Unearthed Redemption**

The shuttle landed back on and headed straight for the bridge, Calstin began giving orders as soon as he stepped on to the deck.

"Get the engines warmed up we're leaving, plot a course back to Rhynax and..."

There a sudden thud and a shudder that came and was felt throughout the ship.

"we are being fired on, sixteen ships on approach, they are attempting to disable our engines!" one of the crew shouted

"Captain we are receiving a hail"

There was another shudder and Calstin looked at the readouts of the approaching vessels, it was a sector patrol fleet but why they were firing on him was a mystery.

"Put it through" He said gritting his teeth

"Cal what if this is the fleet they were expecting!" Derring said

"We can't out run those ships Derring, we haven't broke orbit yet... lets just see who they are and what they want!"

The Grainy Image of Vice Admiral Kieran Mac appeared in front of them looking rather stern.

"_By order of the imperial navy you will power down your engines and prepare to be boarded!"_

"Why?"

"_You have committed an act of treason against his holy majesty the god emperor of mankind and will surrender yourselves for questioning... do not make this more difficult than it needs to be!"_

Calstin looked over to his wife and brother who just shrugged, what could they do, by the time they had broke anchor the forward elements of the fleet would be in range with their bigger guns and then they would easily be crippled and more would die, at least by surrendering they had some chance of talking their way out, he looked over to the officers and nodded.

"Power down our engines and stand by"

"_A wise decision, a boarding party will arrive shortly I suggest you do nothing to aggravate them!"_

The Vice Admiral's image disappeared and they were left looking at each other dumb struck.

"I will tell them it's all my fault and that you were innocent" Derring suddenly said

"It's too late for that! we assisted you but at least this is not an inquisitional fleet" Melissa said

"we will still likely to be handed over to the inquisition after... but my big question is, if this is not the fleet that was coming for the coffin then..."

"... we could end up caught in the middle of a large scale void battle!" Derring said putting two and two together

**Orinoko**

The Orinoko exited the wormhole close to the patrol fleet, a large cruiser was parked at the side of the "Unearthed Redemption" With it's guns trained upon it.

In the main hold everyone was gearing up as Ori appeared.

"_A boarding party has arrested the crew of the "Unearthed Redemption", they claim to of been tricked by the Alpha Legion and were trying to flee the system but the captain of the guard does not fully believe them..."_

"Nor should he but we must ascertain what has occurred, Zovak" Koman said indicating the psyker "I suggest you go probe the minds of the prisoners and see if they are telling the truth, the rest of us will go down to the surface and recover the coffin"

Zovak nodded his response and Ori opened a wormhole to the "Unearthed Redemption" for him and then opened up another to the surface for everyone except Kendra who had mounted a small speeder bike.

"_I will drop Kendra at a position away from the base, there she can proceed to find an advantageous spot to set up an over-watch position" _

"Good, do not let any other ships touch down on the surface!" Rogal said

"_Before you go Lord Dorn, Alistravia wished you to have this..." _A weapon appeared from one of the production benches it had a hand grip designed for a primarch at the centre of a circle magazine that contained massive grenade shells, the barrel was simple but large enough to accommodate larger shells, it had been pained yellow in colour _"...it is called the "Thumper" it fires full armour piercing rounds with an expanded shatter star explosive core, I do not think you will be disappointed with it"_

Rogal picked up the weapon, looked it over then locked it to his belt before turning to the group.

"No on that base must be left alive, they are all traitors!... and don't die, Alis will not be happy if I get any of you killed on your first outing"

It was odd for Koman and the others as it was hard to tell if the primarch was making a joke or being serious but there was a smile from Kinkade.

**Alpha legion base**

After the others had stepped through the wormholes Ori dropped down towards the surface and opened a small hatch out of the back, Kendra fell clamped to her speeder like a bullet and a moment before colliding with the ground she pulled back clamping her fingers down on the power leaver and it roared to life bouncing slightly as the antigravity systems pushed against the surface.

She was less than a mile from the base and shot across the surface until it's lights could be seen, there was a small cliff side close by and she pulled the bike up to it before stepping off and moving to it's edge she activated her cloak and pulled her scope tight to overlook the base as the others made their way from where Ori had gated them in.

"I am in position" she Voxed

"_Acknowledged" _Came the simple response

Knowing Kendra was on over-watch put Koman's mind at rest somewhat as they opened the door to the main facility bolters ready but it was empty save for a few Valkyries, shuttles and cargo containers.

"_I have a bad feeling about this" _Faraq said

"Don't centre on your anxieties, keep your mind in the moment" Rogal said his voice not being muffled by a helm

"_Ori, are their any life signs coming from the base" _Koman asked

"_Oddly no, but I am detecting unusual radiation spikes similar to what is found on planets infested by Chaos!"_

They proceeded further in, most of the corridors were empty but as they approached the back areas that chance, las burns and blood was splatted across the floors and walls yet their were no corpses, as they turned down to the last cargo bay they saw why, all the bodies had been dragged into one big pile, men and women all torn apart by something big.

"_Even my helm can't stop the smell" _Kinkade stated

"_This was not done by the Alpha Legion!" _Koman said looking over the pile

He noticed one holding a circle of metal with the symbol of the twentieth legion on it, he reached out to grab it but a hand stopped him.

"Do not touch it!, this place is a shrine to the dark gods now, we will burn it before we leave" Rogal said

A noise in a room far to the rear of the bay made them all turn around and level their weapons, Rogal drew his great Chain-sword "Storms Teeth" and stepped away from the group.

"This beast is beyond any of you, secure the area and be ready for anything"

"_are you sure about this my Lord?" _Koman said but Rogal did not reply and marched forward towards the room

It roared again as the locks would not break no matter what it tried, worse than that runes had been etched into the coffin that caused it pain as it tried to open it but no matter what it tried the locks would not budge.

"It won't open for you or anyone monster!"

It turned to see the golden giant and it's jaws that sat in the centre of it's body drooled before it spoke.

"_One of hisss brothersss!"_

"The coffin is not yours beast and I will take it from you!" Rogal boomed before thumbing the activation switch on "Storms Teeth", it roared to life and the creature shirked at him before charging forward swinging it's clawed hands out to attack.

Rogal punched one aside and drover "Storms Teeth" Forward underneath the second but the creatures flesh was tough and the blades took time to cut through but it bled and Rogal kicked it in the chest above it's jaws pushing it back slightly but it had planned on this and used it's other claw to slash at the primarch's side, the sound it's nails made as they scrapped across his armour was flesh crawling.

For a moment there was a separation then the two charged at each other again...

**Unearthed Redemption**

Zovak appeared stepped out from the wormhole and on to the bridge of the "Unearthed Redemption".

Within seconds a captain matched up to him, saluted and handed him a slate.

"The ship is secure my lord, we have the prisoners ready for you to question!" he was quite formal but dedicated and escorted Zovak to a small group of people

The officers had been separated from three other people and a small child who was hiding slightly behind her mother and had clearly been crying.

Zovak cast his gaze over them slowly looking for physical signs of deception in their initial body language, they were clearly unnerved but some what defiant and there was an air of guilt coming off the one called Derring Algor who he stepped over to first.

"You are Derring Algor, Archivist..."

He nodded before quickly responding.

"My brother and his family are entirely innocent in all this...!"

"We have evidence enough that you were working with the Alpha Legion and that you stole classified information before allowing it to fall into the hands of the enemy... do you disagree with this evidence?" 

Derring shook his head and was about to speak but his brother interrupted.

"He was tricked into giving them the information!"

Zovak glanced at Calstin before looking back to Derring.

"Is this true?"

"Well...I..."

"So you were not tricked?"

Derring did not know what to say and glanced over to his brother.

"I was attacked by a demon and the Alpha Legionaries rescued me!"

"Those legionaries have been dealt with..." he said referencing to the update they had received from Gigas "...and you should not of agreed to help them!"

"What about the Demon!" the young woman exclaimed

Zovak barley glanced at her before turning and walking to a quiet part of the bridge and opening a vox.

"Koman the prisoners report a creature of the warp, I suggest you don't engage until I..."

"_Lord Dorn is already dealing with it!"_

"Understood" he said before walking back over to the group and looked them over

"Where is the false inquisitor?"

"We found the body of a female that fits her description on one of the lower decks... her skin was stripped and she bore signs of torture my lord" The captain said in quick response

"The demon took her skin" Derring said

Zovak flicked through the data slate he had been handed before looking back to Derring.

"Your guilt is clear, you stole classified information and then handed it over to an enemy force... no matter the circumstances that is not acceptable..."

"But I..."

"Do Not Interrupt Me!" Zovak shouted and the little girl began crying again "you were not tricked and you have dragged others into your betrayal and now they may suffer the same punishment as you!"

Derring looked down to his feet before looking over to his brother and his family and then returning his gaze to Zovak.

"I admit my guilt but my brother and sister in law are innocent!"

"Then why did we find this upon your brothers person" the captain said holding out a circle of metal with the symbol of a hydra upon it

Derring looked at Calstin who repeated the same line he had when they had first found it on him.

"That false inquisitor gave it to my daughter, she told her it was a Tyranid!"

Zovak could see that Calstin believed what he said but as he looked him over he noticed the little girl looking away with a some what guilty look to her and so he turned to her, she hid away from him behind her mother a little as he approached and gazed at her.

"Did the inquisitor give this item to you child?"

The little girl looked up to her mother who knelt down and reassured her.

"It's ok baby just answer his question and then we can go home"

The little girl kept her eyes down as she responded.

"I snuck into her room and took it from her bag"

Zovak didn't need to mind probe the little girl to know she was telling the truth he could tell that from her voice alone.

"I only seek the truth, allow me access to your minds and I can clear you of any wrong doing... unless you are lying!?"

Calstin and Melissa glanced at each other before nodding to Zovak, he laid his hand on Calstin's head first and a look of discomfort fell across the archivists face before Zovak let go and moved on to Melissa, she winced slightly as the psyker read her memories of the events and he seemed to focus longer on her than Calstin but eventually he let go.

"These two are innocent of everything except allowing themselves to be tricked but this one..." he said pointing to Derring "...Is a traitor and knowingly worked with the enemy, take him to the brig aboard the admiral's ship, he will be handed over to the correct authorities later"

Two guards stepped up at either side of Derring and he nodded to his brother.

"It was good seeing you again... live long brother"

He received a nudge from one of the guards to start walking and then did so with no resistance.

"I suggest you take your ship, leave this sector and forget everything that has happened"

"Can't you do something my lord, the inquisition will execute him!?" Calstin exclaimed

Zovak glanced at the Archivist with some annoyance but could understand his appeal, it was his brother and he felt the need to plead for his sentence to be lesser.

"I will do what I can but promise nothing"

It was then a vox was open from Ori to everyone.

"_I am picking up six enemy warships on approach, four are standard imperial vessels but the last two are legion warships in Alpha Legion markings, the Vice Admiral has taken the fleet to battle stations"_

"Ori open a wormhole and get me to the surface"

"_Acknowledged" _the AI responded and a wormhole began to form

Zovak looked to Calstin one last time.

"I suggest you move your ship away from the battle" he said before stepping through the wormhole

The fleet had turned to face the Chaos fleet rather quickly and as the two moved within torpedo range of reach other initial shots were unleashed as torpedoes shot forth from the front line vessels and and the initial stage skirmish began, with the traitors out numbered the Alpha Legion ships pushed the smaller ships forward so that they would take the brunt of the damage and the heavy cruisers of the Alpha Legion could get in place to deliver more damaging hits but the Vice Admiral was not going to allow such and obvious tactic to best him and aliened his fleet in such away that as the first traitor ships entered in to closer combat they were focused down quickly before another ship could enter the sphere on engagement.

Munitions were exchanged and one of the patrol fleets sword class frigates was torn apart by the heavy guns of of one of the larger traitor vessels, as one of the Alpha legion ships surged forward to support the engagement the other hung back and began positioning it's self for a drop pod launch, several transports shot out from it's hull and towards the surface as it began to rain down pod towards the entrance of the base.

**Alpha legion Base**

"_Enemy drop pods are being launched and several thunder hawk transports are making their way to the surface!" _Ori Reported

Koman and the others had already been setting up defences and built up choke points and kill zones with mines and tarantula turrets but stopping a full assault was not going to be easy and they had to cut off some of the enemy's attack.

"Ori destroy as many of the pods and transports as you can and then provide air support!" Koman said as the first drop pods hit the ground

"_Acknowledged"_

Marklar shot a missile into the first pod as it opened, it exploded sending the bodies of Alpha Legionaries flying as two more pods landed and opened up, sniper rounds from Kendra felled the ones that tried to move around the edge and avoid the massive cross fire being delivered by the tarantula turrets and the kill team.

Zovak who had arrived moments before the pod had landed was creating a dense fog that contained charged electrical particles that confused the Alpha Legion warriors targeting systems and caused them to return fire at cargo containers rather than actual space marines.

In the distance three thunder hawks approached but from behind them Ori appeared killing two with a quick blast from the guns, the third veered off making evasive manoeuvrers but Ori chased it down before returning to intercept more of the transports and pods, for now the traitors were contained but Koman absent-mindedly glanced back towards the inner base and wondered just how lord Dorn was fairing.

Rogal Dorn slammed his full body into the creature as it tried to keep it's distance from him, he drove "Storms Teeth" forward into the softer sections of it's belly but stick thick armour plates lessened it's impact.

The warp beast pushed back against him and used it's tail to get between his legs and unseat his position, Rogal stumbled back a little and the beast saw an opportunity and leapt forward looking to decapitate the primarch but Rogal ever the defensive master had seen this coming and used the creatures momentum against it by stepping aside and then plunging "Storms Teeth" into a gap between it's armour plates.

It shrieked and swung it's body round as Rogal pulled the chain-sword loose dragging purple flesh with it and letting a pool of foul smelling fluid drop onto the floor that corroded the metal ground in an instant.

Rogal swung back around with "Storms Teeth" and drove it towards the bulbous eyes of the best as it charged at him but it was cleaver and kept it's body at an angle driving it's claws into position to grab Rogal who parried one of the arms but was hit hard and slammed into the wall with the creature pressing against him, the jaws on it's belly attempted to bit through his armour but was unsuccessful and Rogal countered by slicing "Storms Teeth" at it smashing some of the teeth it bore and causing it to leak more of the purple ooze that seamed to rot the floor.

Rogal pushed the creature back and away from him before hitting it hard with a shoulder charge knocking it off balance, it tried to bring it's tail round to bash the primarch but Rogal grabbed it and pulled spinning the creature around and then driving "Storms Teeth" into another gap in it's armour plates drawing more of the vile ooze.

The creature now was very angry at being wounded so many times and lurched forward smashing "Storms Teeth" aside as Rogal tried to swing at it with the massive chain-sword but the hit was enough to knock the weapon out of Rogal's hands and send it flying across the room.

The creature let a wet laugh hang in the air as it charged again and attempted to knock over the primarch but Rogal drew "Thumper" and fired, the shell went straight through one of the creatures armour plates and blew out a section of it's back.

It stopped dumb founded as Rogal aimed the gun again...

A Thunder Hawk made it past Ori by going around the far side of the planet and landed with a thud, it's assault ramp opened to reveal four terminators and a captain also in terminator armour.

Marklar unleashed a missile into one of them and it blew apart his front armour leaving him exposed enough for bolter rounds to Finnish him off, as he fell the others marched forward unleashing their guns.

Zovak's fog was no longer of any use as the terminators wasted no time in charging straight for them ignoring the tarantula turrets constant fire, as one passed a small stack of heavy cargo containers a proximity mine tripped collapsing the stack on top of the terminator trapping it long enough for Kendra to get a shot on it's helm with a special melta round that burnt not only through the helm but the legionnaires skull.

"Fall back" Koman shouted "We can lose them in the maze of containers"

"_the admiral has broke through the enemy fleet and has begun attacking the ship in orbit that is deploying the marines, I doubt their will be any more reinforcements!"_

One of the terminators pursued Maxis and Kinkade who lured it down by one of the Valkyries, it's heavy guns tore through the transports hull as it attempted to kill them, it spotted Maxis run off down a corridor and stomped after it unleashing random bursts of fire from it's storm bolter but it had forgotten about Kinkade at least until it felt something metallic clamp to it's back, it swung around to see Kinkade dive behind some lose crates before it noticed the sound of humming getting louder.

The melta blew the upper torso of the terminator apart but Maxis and Faraq made sure it was dead with a spay of bolter rounds into what was left of the marines flesh, Faraq had planted enough mines to stop a Tyranid invasion but against the heavily armoured terminators they had little effect as he and Marklar sprinted down into one of the other landing bays.

The former imperial fist, Marklar, loaded his his launcher as the terminator came barrelling down the walk way unleashing fire, in the rush to return fire Marklar's shot went wide destroying a harmless lifting servitor but what was worse is he barley got back into cover in time enough to avoid getting hit and a round from the terminators storm bolter tore through his launcher leaving his last shot with out a way to fire.

"Now what!" Marklar said as the terminator slowly stomped towards them

Faraq looked around to see another servitor, it had a forged lift front and was currently loaded with several barrels of promethium.

"I have an idea" he said moving over to the machine and pulling out it's control mechanism

The terminator looked around scanning for heat signatures and it picked two out hiding behind a rather thin plated stack of crates, it pulled the trigger on it's weapon to fire but before it could a servitor loaded with barrels ploughed into him throwing promethium all over him, a small object rolled close to him and he recognised it as a shell from a missile launcher, he looked up to see Marklar aiming at it then firing.

The shell exploded tearing an opening in some of the frontal armour of the terminator but it was the promethium that mattered more as the explosion ignited it setting the terminator alight and cooking the marine inside alive as Faraq and Marklar shot at it with bolter rounds to keep the warrior inside confused.

Eventually the marine inside expired and their was no more movement from the suit of armour, now there was only the captain left...

The heavy thuds of the terminator captain followed Zovak down through the maze of containers until it lost him, it scanned left and right looking for him or any traps but found none or any sign of the psyker, he slowly moved down the stacks and then saw a shadow move past behind one of the containers.

He rushed after turning a few corners until he found himself in a dead end with a trapped space marine.

Koman turned around and smiled under his helm as the terminator aimed it's storm bolter but as it went to shoot a massive unnatural storm cloud formed above it's head and it looked up as a bolt of lightning went like a spear through the eye slits in his helm burning out his vision, he roared and shot bolter rounds out towards where Koman had been but he was already to the side of the terminator and threw a melta charge that blew off it's left arm, the Alpha Legion terminator stumbled back before being hit by multiple strike from the storm cloud that overloaded it's mechanisms, to finish it Koman tore the helm of the fallen warrior and split his head open with his sword.

"Report?" Koman said over the vox as Zovak appeared with some sweat on his face from using his powers

"_Terminators are all down but a few traitor marines survived and are forming a counter attack" _Kinkade said in response

"Everyone get back to defensive positions, I don't think the primarch will be much longer" he said upon hearing the shrieks of the warp beast

Rogal shot another two rounds from the "thumper" into the chest of the beast and it howled before charging into him but Rogal had decided he no longer had any patience left to deal with the creature so he took the hit and let it drive him into the wall.

"_I WILL DEVOUR YOU!" _It screamed

Rogal had let the creature charge this close for one reason only, whilst the "thumpers" shots were blowing through it's frontal armoured plates he wasn't hitting anything vital but at this range he could, he pulled his arm free with "thumper" in hand and jammed the barrel between the two bulbous eyes and for a moment just before he pulled the trigger Rogal Dorn saw genuine fear in the eyes of the beast.

The shots from "thumper" blew out it's internal organs and purple bile spewed from it's mouth, it recoiled away from the primarch spinning and disorientated by it's imminent death, it reached out towards the coffin and if wanting to touch it one last time but Rogal would not let the best reach it, he holstered "thumper", picked up "Storms Teeth" and cut the beast in half.

As he went to pick up the coffin he heard a bubbling sound coming from the warp creatures corpse, looking over he could see it slowly disintegrate into nothing but a puddle of rotting matter as it's form was no longer able to stay within real space and what ever vile beast it was had been cast back into abyss from where it came.

Rogal lifted the coffin onto his shoulder and made for the exit.

"The coffin is secure, Status"

"_Still a few traitors left out here but the admiral reports the chaos fleet is destroyed"_

"Understood"

The primarch marched out and into the fray, leaving the coffin with Koman he ran straight at the Alpha legionaries who to their credit stood their ground against the primarch but they were no match for him even despite the wounds he had acquired from the warp beast and many were cut down with the first swing of "Storms Teeth"

**Orinoko**

"Admiral you are to turn your guns on the planet and destroy that base, nothing must be left is that understood" Koman said to the holo image

"_I had already anticipated your request and have prepared firing solutions, nothing will be left my lord of that I can assure you"_

Koman finished the conversation by promising the vice-admiral he would let his superiors know how invaluable he was to this operation before turning back to the team and Rogal Dorn as the Orinoko sped past the fleet as it began unleashing it's munitions on the surface.

"So to Prospero now?" Kendra asked

Rogal nodded.

"You should take sometime to rest, it is a long way from here and I do not know what we will find when we reach it"

"If I may my lord!?" Kinkade asked before they all stood, Rogal nodded "I had a follow up question for Zovak"

"Go on?!" Zovak said

"Brother, How did you end up on Estrella as a refugee?"

Zovak smiled at the term brother, his place on this team and their friendship was all but confirmed with that one word.

"Many of my brothers joined Malcador on titan and became part of his "knights Templar" but I did not feel right being part of that so when Alistravia made the decision to leave she offered me asylum with her and I took it... I may never have my legion back but I do have my life!"

"Well said..." The primarch responded

**Prospero**

The Orinoko came out above the planet two days later, there were no ships of the Thousand Suns but a strange dome of psychic power was visible from orbit just out side the planets former capitol city, Ori brought the ship down close to the surface just inside the bubble of power and the team took the small shuttle down.

They approached the centre of the dome and three people stood waiting for them, Sankara Qualm, Alistravia's chief librarian, equerry and First Lord of Terra, Ahzek Ahriman the Thousand Suns greatest son and the crimson king Magnus the red, demon primarch of Tzeentch who paid the marines no attention but focused on his brother carrying the coffin.

Rogal set it down between the three of them before looking to Magnus.

"You were right about something dark being with them, I sent it back screaming into the warp"

"**I had no doubts about that!" **Magnus responded

"Are we ready?" Sankara asked

A nod from Ahzek and Magnus followed and then each produced some form of psychic key from their minds, Rogal stood back as they each pushed the key in the air as if putting it in some kind of invisible lock before twisting it.

Then a door swung open as if it had been there all along yet it did not really exist, Koman and the others felt their eyes drying up as the air seamed to be sucked out of the very dome.

"**We will return shortly" **Magnus stated before picking up the coffin and entering the open door followed by Sankara and Ahzek

A minute later they returned without the coffin and the door slammed shut behind them.

"It is done then?" Rogal asked

"**Yes, the coffin will never be found..."**

"Traitor!" another voice shouted as another traitor crested the hill

A massive man wielding a mace and a burning skull he spat on the ground as if cursing it.

"Lorgar!" Rogal said drawing "Storms Teeth"

The three who had entered the library quickly drew their keys and sealed the entrance as the word bearers primarch approached.

"What is this a reunion... will Corax appear next?" Kinkade muttered as the group watched

Rogal started to march out towards Lorgar but Magnus called him back.

"**Stay you weapon Rogal... if he were here to fight he would not of come alone!"**

"You assist our enemy Magnus!"

"The storm lord was never part of this squabble Lorgar, so we can not treat his body as some prize in our game now!" Ahzek spat

"**You did not come to call me traitor Lorgar nor did you come to claim his body, you came for access to the library but as I told you over ten millennia ago you will not have access and that has not changed!"**

The demon primarch spat on the ground again clearly insulted by Magnus's words.

"you are creating enemies you do not need brother!" he said raising his mace

"Alistravia will be upset I killed you, she so wanted to do it her self" Rogal said but as he was about to take another step Magnus jumped in front of him

"**Alone against me you stand little chance of victory" **Magnus started to say although Rogal knew Lorgar would give Magnus a hard fight **"But against myself and Rogal you would lose without question and you know it which is why you came alone"**

"This is not over!" he spat before opening a gate behind him and exiting the field

Rogal looked up at Magnus.

"it seams there are still many divisions between you all?" Rogal said

Magnus said nothing in return and simply looked up into the sky, for a moment Rogal considered striking at him while he was distracted but this was not the time or the place to settle old scores and despite his dislike of Magnus for his traitorous acts he could not ignore that he had kept his word here, he would of course make note of the exchange between Magnus and Lorgar.

"Next time Magnus we may be on opposite sides" Rogal said

"**We may be enemies but we are always brothers Rogal... nothing can change that fact... even if sometimes you would wish it"**

Magnus shot into the sky on his wings leaving Rogal flummoxed, many times he had wished he was not related to his traitor kin but Magnus reminded him that no force in the universe could change that fact and there were many other facts that could not be changed... no matter how much he hid behind Terra's walls.

Sankara and Ahzek left via septate warp gates with no word and it was likely this incident would never appear on any records or ever be mentioned again.

**Terra**

The three primarchs stood in their private council discussing what had occurred.

"_At least now we can put this matter to rest and focus our attention where it is needed" Roboute_ said after listening to the tale

"You were right though Roboute, there are divisions between our traitor brothers... I am not sure how large those are but given Lorgar was willing to make an appearance there is clear tension!" Rogal exclaimed

"Do you think we can exploit that?" Alistravia asked

"Hard to say, Lorgar and Magnus were not strangers to each other after you left, in fact with you gone their relationship improved" the praetorian responded

"_what about the Alpharius you captured?"_

"He is in stasis at the moment, I doubt he will give any information freely but I have an idea though it will take sometime to plan" Alistravia said "for now we should stay the course, continue the indomitus crusade, other things are in motion but better left unsaid until I am sure of victory"

"_I will make sure it succeeds!" _Roboute exclaimed

"Of that I have no doubts" Alistravia responded "Is there anything else we need to discuss?"

"There is one more thing... Zovak recounted the tale of the Storm Lord to the others but in doing so he reminded me of something" Rogal said

"And that was?"

"Angron, if we can draw him out and point him in the direction of Abbadon we can end this much faster and he would do anything for you sister"

Alistravia took a deep breath and thought about it.

"True but that was then and this is now, I cannot guarantee I will hold any sway with him but should he appear we will try..."

"_Then we are agreed we stay the course?"_

"Agreed!" Alistravia and Rogal chorused

**The End**


End file.
